THE BOOK OT 
HOME NURSING 

/\ Practical Cuiae 
lor ike Treatment of 
Siclness in tlie Hoine 

FRANCES CAMPBELL 




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COPYRIGHT DEPQSm 



Uniform with this Volume 



INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD 

A Popular Book on the Care of Children 



By 



WALTER REEVE RAMSE7, M.D. 

Asst. Prof, Diseases of Children at the Univ, of Minnesota, 
Med. Director of St. Paul Baby Welfare Assoc, etc. 



Fully Illustrated. $L25 net 



E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
NEW YORK. 




When your Patient can Eat from a Tray, Make the Meals 
Dainty and Attractive 

[Page 39] 



THE BOOK OF 
HOME NURSING 

A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE 

TREATMENT OF SICKNESS 

IN THE HOME 



BY 



FRANCES CAMPBELL 

(MRS. GEORGE E. CAMPBELL) 
GRADUATE OF HOSPITAL OF ST. BARNABAS, NEWARK, N. J. 



NEW YORK 

E. p. BUTTON & COMPANY 

681 Fifth Avenue 
1917 



.Ca 



Copyright, 1917 

BY 

E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 



JiiL 25 1917 

Printed in the United States of America 

©C1.A467951 



r 



G. E. C. 

AND IN MEMORY OF 

ISABEL GORDON CURTIS 

AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS BOOK 
WAS WRITTEN 



A WORD WITH THE READER 

It is quite impossible to tell where one learns 
everything, and in making this little book, I know 
I have been more or less of a pirate. No book 
on nursing could be entirely original, just as no 
arithmetic or grammar could be original. Each 
book tries to put the same facts in a simpler or 
more interesting form. Some of the ideas are 
my own, things I worked out for myself while 
nursing; some I received with my hospital train- 
ing; some from friends who are hospital niirses 
or superintendents, and many others from books 
written by doctors and nurses, who, like myself, 
have tried to help a little in this world where so 
much help is needed. 

For many helpful suggestions I wish to thank 
Miss Amy Ames Bliss of the Henry Street Settle- 
ment House, New York, and Miss Emma H. Mc- 
Gall, superintendent of The Hospital of St. Giles 
for Cripples, Brooklyn. 

Frances Campbell. 

March 3o'igi7. 



vu 



CONTENTS 



A Word with the Nurse 

General Care of the Patient 

The Sick-Room 

Making the Patient's Bed 

Baths for the Sick .... 

The Tray 

Preparing the Patient for the Night 

A Record for the Doctor . 

The Medicine Closet 

How TO Give an Enema and a Douche. 

Poultices, Applications to Relieve Pain 
Ointments and Liniments 



Children ...... 

Special Cases and Contagious Diseases 
A Stitch in Time .... 

Before the Baby Comes 

Feet ....... 



I 
8 

25 
32 
44 
56 
61 

65 

74 
92 

98 
106 
120 
146 

151 

159 



X CONTENTS 








PAGE 


The Fallen Arch 165 


What to Give in Case of Poisoning 




167 


Home-made Articles .... 




172 


Nuisances . . . . . 






179 


Keeping Well 






183 


Diet for Children 






201 


What to Feed your Patient 






206 


Liquid Diet 






214 


Gruels .... 






223 


Soups Made with Milk 






226 


Light Diet .... 






230 


A Few Helpful Recipes 






233 


Eggs ..... 






235 


What to Do in Emergencies 






239 


Index 






. 267 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



When your Patient can Eat from a Tray 
[Page ^g] . . ... . Frontispiece 

Combing the Hair in Bed . . . .16 

Folding the Blankets in a Chair. [Page 23] 16 

To Make a High Bed 33 

Ready for the Patient .... 34 

Waiting for Breakfast. [Page iy6\ . . 34 

The Way to Roll a Blanket or Sheet . 46 

Make the Tray as Attractive as Possible 

[Pages?] 46 

Ready for the Bath 48 

With her Feet in the Bath Pan ... 48 

Many Times the Bed must be Raised at the 
Foot. [Page 12?] 103 

Stupes on Back or Abdomen . . .103 

Paper Toys Cut from Old Magazines 
[Page 116] 144 

The Croup Tent 144 

Black Broadcloth Liberty Cape . .154 



^ 






/ 



v/ 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



An Easy Way to Nurse the Baby . .157 

Wash the Apple before you Give it to 
YOUR Little Girl 157 

Home-made Bedpan 172 

Home-made Ice Cap and Ring of Cotton . 175 

An Easy Way to Shade the Light. [Page ly] 175 ' 

To Make a Knee Rest from a Box . . 176 

Cradle for Broken Leg , . .176 

Bandaging 263, 264, 265 



THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 



J 



The Book of Home Nursing 



A WORD WITH THE NURSE 

A little girl came home from kindergarten one 
day, chanting, 

** Politeness is to do and say, 
The kindest thing in the kindest way." 

A parody on this for nurses might be, 

*' Nursing is to do each day, 
The kindest thing in the cleanest way." 

The kindest thing is not always the easiest thing 
for either the patient or the nurse, but always the 
best in the end. 

This book is not written for trained nurses or for 
those who can send for a nurse whenever desired, 
but for those, and there are many, who knowing 
absolutely nothing about nursing still must care 
for their sick and afflicted. In many homes the 
father of the family has only as much in a week for 



J 



2 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

all his expenses as it would take to pay a trained 
nurse. 

Though my hospital days are far behind me and 
I have been a housekeeper for years, many times 
I hurry out to answer some agonized call on the 
telephone. One of my neighbors has burned her 
arm or some child is to have adenoids removed and 
the mother, losing the nerve which she so proudly 
thought she possessed, just sends for me. This is 
not considered an unusual service in the village 
where we have grown up together and where we 
give our skill as gladly as we share the fruit and 
flowers from our gardens. 

Sometimes a nurse who has been on duty for a 
long time, without sleep, gets forty winks while I 
watch her patient, or a baby is coming and the 
nurse who has been engaged is not there to meet 
him. Will I not act as reception committee, until 
she arrives? 

In many homes I have found absolutely no idea 
of the simplest things to be done in sickness, and 
they all say, "How do trained nurses make such 
comfortable beds?" "How do you feed liquids 
to a person who is fiat on his back, without leaving 
most of it on the outside?" Many ask, "What 
shall I give him to eat?" For in a small town 



A WORD WITH THE NURSE 3 

where there is no nurses' register, and where in 
many cases a nurse could not be afforded, advice 
is often sought. 

Very often all the nursing required is to give 
medicine regularly, make the patient comfortable 
in bed, and prepare food ordered by the doctor. 
I cannot be too emphatic about obeying the doc- 
tor's orders. The best nurse is one who does not 
try to diagnose cases and order medicine for her 
patients, but who gives treatment, baths, and 
nourishment on time, keeps her patient comfort- 
able and if possible happy. 

Because a woman has served a stated time in a 
hospital, under a competent superintendent and 
many doctors, because she has studied books 
written for her instruction, and put into practice, 
day after day in the wards of the hospital, the 
theories which she has learned, she is called a 
trained nurse. A trained nurse never takes the 
place of a doctor and does not expect to diagnose 
cases or recommend treatment, but many times, 
in cases of emergency, she must be able to act 
promptly to save her patient's life. She does not 
do things because some of the neighbors advise it, 
or because she has heard it is a good thing to do. 
What she does is done because she knows it is the 



J 



4 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

tliii;ig to do, is what the doctor would do if he were 
present, and therefore because she is trained she is 
allowed to use her knowledge, sometimes called 
using her judgment, and the greater her knowledge 
or judgment and the quicker she acts upon it the 
more she is valued by the doctors who employ her. 
Home nurses, not being trained, are not allowed this 
latitude in judgment. They must follow exactly 
the orders of their doctor, and he will tell them what 
emergencies may arise and also how to meet them. 

If food or medicine is ordered for eight o'clock, 
give it at that time, not before or after, unless 
the doctor should say, ' ' If she is sleeping you need 
not disturb her." Sometimes sleep is better than 
medicine, but the doctor must be the judge of that. 
Then again the baths and the care of the patient 
should be given as regularly as possible. When 
one is sick and weary, waiting for things is very 
hard, and no one but he who has been sick in a 
wrinkled bed and untidy night clothes knows the 
perfect luxury of a bath, brushed hair, and cool 
smooth sheets and pillow-cases. 

Prompt and cheerful service is not only grateful 
to the patient but is as good as medicine. If 
possible, one member of the family should be free 
to care for the patient and make his necessities her 



A WORD WITH THE NURSE 5 

first consideration. Many times the mother of 
the house must be cook, housekeeper, and nurse as 
well, and it is a strenuous task to perform the very 
numerous duties of a house-mother, at the same 
time keeping a convalescent child happy. Every 
mother knows that while she is not as worried 
about her child during convalescence as when he is 
very ill, he is much harder to care for, to keep 
amused, and covered in bed. 

The irritating things which occur in every house- 
hold should be kept from* the patient. Do not tell 
the sick mother that her favorite cup and saucer 
are broken or that the baby across the street has 
died, nor the father that the kitchen drain is 
frozen up. Try to manage the uncomfortable 
things without discussing them within the hearing 
of the patient. Things which he is not able to 
help are doubly irritating, first, because of the 
annoyance to the family and, second, because they 
emphasize his helplessness. 

Never tell a patient how hard it is to take care 
of him and how tired you get doing it. This will 
seem an unnecessary warning to people of good 
taste, but I assure you it is done many times 
and causes heartache and depression to helpless 
persons. 



6 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Keep the air clean and fresh in the sick room. 
Fresh air and sunshine are nurses in themselves. 
Some diseases are cured by nothing but nourishing 
food, fresh air, and sunshine. 

A thoughtful nurse watches her patient and 
anticipates his wants. Many people will go with- 
out a much-needed comfort rather than ask for it, 
and, on the other hand, having someone at their 
beck and call to run at their slightest wish makes 
tyrants of others. The nurse will soon learn which 
kind of patient she has to deal with and govern 
herself accordingly. 

One of the hardest things to guard against is the 
friendly visit of a relative or neighbor. The doc- 
tor must be asked about the number and length 
of visits the patient may receive and then his 
orders must be religiously obeyed. One visitor 
at a time, unless in a case of advance convales- 
cence, is all that a patient should have. When you 
admit the guest to your patient's room tell him 
smilingly, ''The doctor says you may stay ten 
minutes." In ten minutes take your courage in 
hand, go back and tell him the time is up. Sad 
to say some people will be offended, for many 
kindly intentioned friends are firm believers that 
no matter how much other people might tire the 



A WORD WITH THE NURSE 7 

sick man, they could not possibly hurt him. Such 
ones must be handled with tact, but they must be 
gotten out in some way. 

Do not sit on the bed or let others do so. It is 
most annoying to the patient, especially if she 
have a headache or a broken bone. I once heard 
of a stout woman who sat on the side of the bed in 
order that she might better see the two-hour-old 
baby. Her weight was just a little more than the 
bed could stand, so down they all went in a heap, 
the stout woman, the mother, and the brand-new 
baby. Such things are trying to a woman whose 
baby is only two hours old. 

Trust your doctor. If for any good reason you 
cannot trust him, get another. The doctor, the 
nurse, and the family must work in harmony, and 
the patient must be made to feel that everything 
is being done for her wisely and well. Remember 
that a contented state of mind, pleasant surround- 
ings, a clean comfortable bed, prompt cheerful 
nursing, and proper food are the things which 
count full as much as medicine. Any doctor will 
tell you this. 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 

Sometimes when there has been a horrible blun- 
der, we learn that the engineer was too tired, 
because he had been taking care of a sick wife 
during his hours for sleeping; that the druggist 
was over-worked when he gave the wrong powder, 
or that the nurse who had been on duty too long 
had done some dreadful thing. 

The human body will not endure everything, and 
in order to take care of others we must take care 
of ourselves. 

A trained nurse was called for a sick child. She 
went on duty at ten A. M. and cared for her little 
patient until ten the next morning, — twenty-four 
hours. He needed almost constant attention and 
she had no chance to rest. The second morning 
the mother came to the room dressed for the street 
and announced that she was going shopping, asking 
if anything was needed from town. The nurse 
gave her the list of articles required and asked, 
"Who will stay with the patient while I sleep?'* 

8 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 9 

The mother was amazed and said, '* Sleep! Do 
you have to sleep ? I thought you were a trained 
nurse.'* 

Many people, sad to say, have the same idea, 
and it is necessary at times for the doctor to 
arrange rest hours for the nurse. But home 
nurses have to arrange this for themselves and 
many times feel they are selfish if they take the 
rest they really should have. In order to take the 
best care of your patient, you must also take good 
care of yourself, eat your meals regularly, and eat 
nourishing ones. Do not feel time spent on your- 
self is wasted. If you must be up very much in the 
night, have a warm drink and something to eat. 
Try to get out of doors every day if only for a few 
minutes. There is almost always someone who 
can watch your patient for a little while. Take 
your baths regularly and be careful to keep your 
bowels in good order. Irregular hours sometimes 
upset regular habits. If you find this to be the 
case, eat the food which is directed for such an 
emergency. If this does not correct the trouble, 
take a cathartic. You owe it to both your patient 
and yourself to keep in good condition, both 
physically and mentally. If you must sew or 
mend for the family while sitting with your 



10 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

patient, pick out the easiest chair you can find. 
Always rest as much as you can. Tired people 
are much more inclined to get sick than those who 
are rested. Keep your clothing as clean and fresh 
as possible. It adds to your own self-respect and 
makes you more attractive and therefore more 
soothing to your patient. 

Do not rock in a squeaky chair. It is best not 
to rock at all, for such little things tire sick people. 
If a blanket or quilt has stripes, ask the patient, 
unless you know already, which way she prefers 
to have the stripes run. I know a woman who is 
a very sensible, reasonable person in her normal 
state and who was worried almost to tears because 
a quilt was put over her with the stripes running 
across the bed. She thought it too silly to speak 
of and did not, which was the silliest thing of all, 
for the nurse would have been more than glad to 
arrange it in the other way had she only known. 

With some diseases the room must be cold, 
having plenty of fresh air even in the winter. Be 
careful about protecting yourself with extra cloth- 
ing. A shawl is a nuisance, for it always dips 
into things and slides off one's shoulders. Wear a 
knitted or a flannel jacket or a sweater. Be care- 
ful at night. Have slippers and wrapper or 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT ii 

kimono by your bed or cot so you may hop into 
them at a moment's notice, for if you take cold 
and are sick there will be two patients to care for, 
and the last state of your family will be worse than 
the first. 

If you have time to sit down, don't spend that 
time crotcheting lace or doing embroidery but put 
your feet up on another chair, and if you do not 
care to read a good story, fold your hands in your 
lap, relax your tired muscles, and just rest. 

Attend to the necessities of your patient as early 
in the morning as possible. Take her a basin of 
warm water, soap, wash cloth and towel, and things 
for cleaning her teeth. If she is not too ill, she 
will enjoy washing her face and hands and clean- 
ing her teeth herself. If you must do it for her, 
do not wet her hair, get soap in her eyes, or rub her 
nose up instead of down. Some will laugh at these 
directions and others do exactly these things if not 
warned. If your patient is not well enough to 
brush her teeth, take a small strand of absorbent 
cotton, twist it around your index finger, dip the 
finger in water, a mouth wash, or water to which 
a little lemon and glycerine has been added. 
Clean the teeth with this, very gently, and do not 
gag her. Clean back of the wisdom teeth, the 



12 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

gums, and the tongue, renewing the cotton fre- 
quently. Let the patient rinse her mouth with 
water, holding a glass half full to her lips. It will 
not spill down her chin and neck if the glass is not 
full and is handled carefully. Help the patient to 
hold her head by placing your hand under the 
back of the neck. Do not put your hand under 
her head to raise it, as that tips it forward in an 
uncomfortable position. Put a basin close to her 
cheek and turn her head gently so she may let the 
water run in the basin. Let her rinse her mouth 
two or three times if she likes. 

During fevers the mouth often needs great care 
and should be washed each time milk or nourish- 
ment is given. Wash with cotton on the finger 
as directed, and with tiny bits of absorbent cotton 
wound on the end of toothpicks clean between the 
teeth, taking great care not to injure the gums. 
In case this is necessary the doctor will prescribe 
a mouth wash. 

When working around the patient, do not use 
quick, jerky movements. It is most trying to 
tired nerves. Be as gentle and as sympathetic 
as possible. If your hands are cold, hold them in 
hot water a few minutes before going to your 
patient. 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 13 

Never put a cold bedpan under the patient's 
back. Pour hot water over the pan and dry before 
using. When you remove it, cover at once with 
a cloth, kept for that purpose. The patient should 
be bathed and dried carefully each time after using 
the bedpan. 

One of the smallest but most bothersome things 
which those in bed have to endure is a torturing 
crumb. Tiny bits of toast or bread become very 
dry or hard and are as sharp as needles and as 
irritating as fleas. The tray removed (which by 
the way should be done as soon as the patient has 
finished eating), with a whisk broom remove all 
crumbs from the sheets. Turn the patient on her 
side, brush under her back, then turn her again 
and brush the other side of the bed. Do not trust 
all to the whisk broom, but put your hand under 
the patient to be sure not one crumb escapes you. 

Always keep the sheets pulled tightly across the 
bed, as wrinkles are most uncomfortable, and if 
lain on for any length of time, will make tender or 
sore places on the flesh. If your patient lies in 
one position for a long time watch carefully the 
back, hips, heels, and elbows, especially the lower 
part of the back, and rub them with alcohol, and 
dust with talcum powder every time you have a 



14 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

chance. Whatever happens, your patient must 
never have a bed sore. If the skin looks red or 
for any reason you cannot keep your patient dry, 
call the attention of the doctor to this. Do not 
wait until the skin is broken before telling the 
doctor. If you find a red place on the hip or back, 
rub it well with alcohol or with vinegar or water, 
powder it and put a ring (made from cotton and a 
bandage) under your patient, with the red place 
over the opening in the ring, until you have an 
opportunity to show it to the doctor. A bed sore 
or a bum is a very bad thing for the patient in her 
weakened condition and also a disgrace to the 
nurse who cares for her. Always remember that 
your doctor is not a mind reader and never feel 
that anything is too trivial to tell him. Doctors 
are more than grateful for interested, intelligent 
cooperation and all are anxious to avoid bed sores 
and will help you with the ounce of prevention 
which in this case is worth tons of cure. 

There are air cushions made of rubber which are 
fine for placing under the back and heels, but if 
they are not to be had, take a roll of cotton and 
make a ring, then wind with narrow strips of mus- 
lin or cheesecloth (strips of an old sheet will do), 
and place this under the back. It may not be 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 15 

comfortable very long but can be taken away and 
tried again after a while. 

If your patient must lie on her back, place a 
pillow under her knees. This relieves the strain 
on the muscles and keeps her from sliding down in 
bed. A small or thin pillow is a great comfort if 
placed between the knees when lying on the side. 
This also relieves the muscles and prevents the 
skin of the knees from becoming sore. The small 
pillow can be used in numerous positions and is 
a great satisfaction to a sick-in-bed. It can be 
placed under the aching back, the rheumatic arm, 
or tucked up comfortably under the lame foot or 
ankle. By turning the patient on her side, with 
the pillow tucked snugly at her back and another 
between her knees, she may forget her ills in a 
refreshing sleep. 

Your patient may like a large pillow, and if your 
pillows are small, slide two into one pillow slip to 
make a large one. This is more satisfactory than 
two pillows in separate cases, one on top of the 
other, as they slide about and are annoying. 

When preparing your patient for a nap or for 
the night, be sure that the sheet and blanket come 
high enough to cover her shoulders. It is trying 
to have a cold spot on one's shoulder and the bed 



i6 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

clothing tucked in at the foot so tightly one cannot 
pull it up. 

If your patient has long hair which snarls, put 
a little olive oil or alcohol and water on the snarls 
and then pick them out with your fingers. If 
you have a rubber cloth, cover it with a towel and 
put it over the pillow while doing this and thus 
save soiling the bed. If you have no rubber sheet, 
use a paper in its place. Wash the patient's 
comb and brush in cold water and ammonia. 
Keep her hair neat, combing it each morning and 
again at night, if you have time and she likes to 
have it done. Comb from the bottom, holding 
the hair firmly in your left hand about six or eight 
inches from the ends and not pulling on the scalp. 
With the other hand comb gently, removing the 
snarls from the six or eight inches below the left 
hand. If the hair is held tightly it will not pull. 
After the snarls are out of that part, move the left 
hand up a few inches and comb as before. Pick 
out the snarls with your fingers and do not break 
the hair. If your patient is very ill and tires easily, 
comb only one side of her hair at a time. If at 
the beginning of her illness her hair is parted in the 
back and braided in two braids you will have little 
trouble with snarls. A heavy wash cloth, wet in 




Begin to Comb at the End of the Hair and Work 

TOWARD THE HeAD. HoLD THE HaIR TiGHTLY 
BETWEEN THE HeAD AND THE COMB 




Fold the Corners of the Blanket, which are over the 

Arms of the Chair, around her Legs; Fold the 

Corner on the Floor up over her Feet and 

YOU have her in a Blanket Envelope 

[Page -\,'] 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 17 

alcohol and water and wrung tightly is very good 
for cleaning the hair and scalp and is refreshing. 

Sometimes an otherwise clean sheet will have a 
soiled spot on it. Wash out the spot; dry, air, 
and put away until you need another drawsheet. 
Never cover up a spot. 

The bed must stand where the light will not 
shine in the patient's eyes, for the eyes are weak 
as well as other parts of the body. A lamp shade 
must be used at night. A tiny lamp gives light 
enough, or if a light is not needed all the time, a 
candle will do, and is much better than a large 
lamp turned down or shaded, for that spoils the 
air and as the polite old lady said, "Makes a dis- 
agreeable effluvia." 

If all your pillows are in use and you have none 
to spare to put under your patient's knees, roll a 
comfortable and slide it into a pillow-case or make 
a homemade knee rest. 

A relapse is usually caused by too much food, 
the wrong kind of food, an attempt to get up be- 
fore the patient is strong enough, or by too many 
visitors. 

Have an extra blanket or quilt to put over your 
patient toward morning, as her vitality is lower at 
that time and she will be cold, with the covering 



i8 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

which would keep her comfortable during the day 
or early part of the night. 

If your patient is sick in hot weather you will 
have to do many things to keep her cool. A wet 
sheet hung in a window or outer door cools the air. 
If you have a water system, fasten the hose so that 
the water may fall in front of your patient's 
window. Placing cloths wrung out of cold water 
on her head will be refreshing. Rub the back 
gently with alcohol and dust with talcum powder. 
Keep wrinkles out of the nightdress and turn tfie 
pillows often. Move the patient from one side 
of the bed to the other, for in very hot weather she 
will feel as if she were lying on a mustard plaster. 

If for any reason you cannot keep the bed dry, 
rub the lower part of your patient's back with olive 
oil or mutton tallow. Tell the doctor about it, as 
this will cause a bed sore if not looked after 
promptly. If for any reason your patient cannot 
have cold water to drink, bathing her face and 
hands with cold water will be appreciated. A cold 
wet cloth over her forehead and aching eyes is 
comforting. When you do this, put a towel over 
the pillow to keep it quite dry. 

Sometimes your patient is not able to pass urine. 
Try pouring water from one pitcher to another so 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 19 

she may hear it. Let a faucet run where she can 
hear it. If that does not work satisfactorily, try 
pouring warm water gently over the lower part of 
the abdomen. If none of these things bring about 
the desired result, the doctor must be told at once, 
as it is a very bad thing for a patient to go too long 
without voiding urine. It is very important that 
this should be done regularly. Passing a catheter 
is something which should never be done by a 
person who has not been taught to use it. If your 
doctor wants you to do this, he will teach you. 
Great harm can result when it is not done carefully 
and cleanly, in the way that doctors call surgically 
clean. 

A helpless patient has to be moved often. If 
you will try lying in one position you will see how 
very quickly you are tired. Lying in one position 
is a very easy way to start a bed sore. The pillows 
should be removed often, shaken, and put back 
under the head the other side up. Do not try to 
hold your patient up with one hand and shake the 
pillow with the other. It jars the patient and you 
cannot make the pillow even and smooth. Put your 
arm under her neck and shoulder, lift slowly and 
gently, and with the other hand draw out the pil- 
low; lower her carefully, and then, standing away 



20 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

from the bed, shake the pillow thoroughly, smooth 
it, and lay on the bed near your patient's head. 
Then lifting your patient as before, slide the pillow 
under her head. If you have them, use two pillows, 
then when you remove a pillow, slide in the fresh 
one which you have put within reach before lifting 
your patient. In this way the patient need be 
lifted but once. One pillow should be airing while 
the other is in use. 

If the patient slides down in bed, which by the 
way does not mean that she is going to die, even 
if the neighbors do think so, place your arm imder 
her shoulder and, with her knees drawn up, place 
the other arm under her thighs, then ask your 
patient to press on her heels. Her little bit of 
strength combined with a very little of yours will 
raise her up where you want her. If she is weak or 
heavy, you may have to do this two or three times 
as she will move very little at a time. 

Turn your patient on her side (unless she must 
not be moved). This rests her. Reaching over 
your patient place your hand well under her 
shoulder, the one farthest from you, and the other 
hand under her hip, and draw gently towards you. 
This will turn her on her side. If she is then too 
near the edge of thebed, go to the other side of the 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 21 

bed so you will be facing her back, and placing your 
hand under her shoulder, draw gently towards 
you, then place both hands under her hip and draw 
towards you. Place a pillow along her back tuck- 
ing it well in at the lower edge, so that she may not 
roll back in an uncomfortable position. Draw up 
the knees and place a small pillow between them. 
If you have no small pillow, a larger one will not 
be imcomfortable. But if your patient lies on her 
side very much, she must have something to pre- 
vent irritating the skin on her knees. You can 
make a pad of cotton and a soft piece of muslin. 

You may need the help of another person if your 
patient is very weak and cannot help herself. If 
so, do not discuss the patient or any other thing 
while you are caring for her. Be as quiet and 
gentle as possible. Give all needed directions to 
your helper before she comes into the room. 
Avoid quick movements, noises, and above all, do 
not argue about the method of procedure. 

Do not allow any one in the room who is not 
helping to do something for the patient. Do not 
let them stand by the door or talk in the hall or 
next room. When one is very ill it is no time to 
satisfy morbid curiosity, and any one not directly 
connected with the care of the patient is an in- 



22 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

truder. If your friends come in to visit your 
patient let them read this book while you are 
doing something for her, and then they will see 
that not someone else, but they themselves are 
the ones I am warning you about. 

When feeding a weak patient, do it slowly, 
never be impatient and do not look cross if she 
spills things. Nine times out of ten she will be 
more sorry to make trouble than you are to remedy 
it. Very sick people should be treated not like 
grown-up members of society but like little chil- 
dren. This does not mean to talk baby talk to 
them or pat them on the back or the head as the 
unprofessional bewhiskered doctors in the moving 
pictures always do, but just be gentle, kind, and 
considerate in both movement and speech. 

When your patient is ready to sit up, do not 
tire her with preparations for it. Put on her 
stockings or, if it is a man, put her stockings on 
him. A woman's stockings are much longer, cover 
the knees, and are easier to put on than under- 
clothes. Put on her slippers, draw a large high- 
backed rocking chair to the head of the bed, put 
books or blocks under the rockers so it cannot slide 
or rock, put a blanket or comfortable over the 
chair cornerways, then with your patient's arms 



GENERAL CARE OF THE PATIENT 23 

around your neck and with your hands under her 
anns, let her slide to the chair. A stool will be 
needed if the bed is high. Fold the corners of the 
blanket, which hang over the chair arms, around her 
legs: the corner on the floor, fold up over her feet 
and pin with a large safety pin. Put a shawl or 
jacket around her shoulders and you have her 
snug and warm in a blanket envelope. Take 
away the blocks under the rockers and slowly draw 
your patient to another room, if possible; if not 
then to the window. Put a low chair or stool 
under her feet and, if she wants it, a pillow at her 
back. If you have been able to take your patient 
to the next room, open the windows in your sick 
room and take the bed to pieces at once. Shake 
the blanket and sheet, turn the mattress, and 
remake the bed, for your patient may be tired in a 
very few minutes and it must be ready the second 
she wants to go back. More harm than good will 
be done if she is over-tired. If your patient must 
sit in her room, take the sheets and blanket out of 
doors and shake them, turn the mattress, and 
make the bed. 

If there is a comfortable cot or couch in the next 
room or even in her own room, it will be a pleasant 
change to use it part of the time, as soon as she is 



24 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

well enough. This should be made like a bed, with 
sheets and pillows. The bed will be a haven of rest 
and not a place of torment when she goes back, and 
if given a warm drink and a hot-water bag or 
blanket for her feet, if needed, she will then have 
a nap. The first excursion in the rocking chair 
should not last over half an hour and may not be 
longer than ten minutes. Do not urge the patient 
to sit up, after she wants to go back in bed. Have 
the bed ready and advise going back before she is 
too tired. 

When your patient is convalescing, she will no 
doubt enjoy having someone read to her. If you 
have a friend or neighbor who can do this it will 
give you time for other things. Be sure that she 
reads cheerful stories and does not tell news which 
would make the patient nervous or distressed. 



THE SICK ROOM 

The room chosen for the patient should always 
be as far away from the working part of the house 
as possible, in order that she may not be tired by 
unavoidable noises, the conversation of the family, 
or annoyed by smells of cooking. A sunny room 
is best, for the curtain can be drawn or the light 
shaded if it is too bright, while a room in which the 
sun never shines is not as healthful and is de- 
pressing. Do not put your patient in a small room 
unless absolutely necessary. If you have a large 
room, put your patient there, even to desecrating 
that holy of holies, the farmhouse or village parlor. 
As a rule in farmhouses and in many village houses 
as well, there is a bedroom opening into the parlor, 
known as the parlor bedroom, usually with one 
window, while in the parlor are always two win- 
dows, usually three, and sometimes four, besides an 
outside door. When a long illness is expected as 
in typhoid fever, or when a baby is coming, pack 
away the family photographs, the crayon portraits, 

25 



26 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the center table, and always the carpet. Place a 
single bed well in the center of the room where 
the light will not shine in your patient's eyes. 
Have a table near the head of the bed and another 
for the books and sewing, which the nurse will use. 
The mother of the house will not be worried about 
her cherished possessions if they are safely put 
away, and if not in pain, will enjoy spending days 
in her parlor, which, if she is a farmer lady, will be 
an unusual experience. This room is not near the 
kitchen and will be more quiet; will save much 
running up and down stairs, which always has to 
be done if there is no bathroom. She will be able 
to have light, air, and quiet, three things which will 
aid her recovery. 

There should be no heavy curtains or hangings. 
If anything is desired besides the shade, let it be 
muslin or net curtains which can be laundered. 
Have as little as possible to keep dusted and still 
have the room livable. A bare floor is best, with 
cotton rugs which can be washed after the patient 
is well, and during her sickness can be taken out of 
doors, shaken, and aired. 

Do not sweep the bare floor but clean it with one 
of the many dustless mops. A piece of soft cloth, 
outing flannel, or old blanket put over the broom, 



THE SICK ROOM 2^ 

will do nicely. When cleaning the room, do not 
hit the bed or move it without telling the patient 
you are going to do so. Do not make any un- 
avoidable noise or stir. If the carpet sweeper 
squeaks, oil it, and do not hit the bed or furniture 
with it. Also oil the noisy door hinge. If the 
shutter rattles in the wind, fasten it, or if the 
window rattles, put a folded card or piece of wood 
between the sash. Do not let the family slam 
doors. 

The windows should be open all the time unless 
the patient is being bathed or is uncovered. In 
cold weather a good way is to raise the window 
about six inches and place a board across the open- 
ing. The air will enter between the two sashes 
of the window and cannot blow directly upon your 
patient. You can get a little fresh air by raising 
the sash until the bottom edge is level with the 
window sill. If the bed stands where the air 
strikes your patient and you have no screen, an 
umbrella or parasol makes a good screen and, in 
case of a sick child, a diversion, for all children 
love to play under an umbrella. A window screen 
covered with cheesecloth or a piece of cheesecloth 
tacked on the outside of the window keeps out 
dust, soot, or smoke and lets in fresh air. 



■i 



28 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Cold air is not always fresh air, and because a 
room is cold it is no sign that it does not need 
airing. 

If possible do not use a polished table at the 
bedside. If there is no other one which can be 
used for this purpose, cover the polished one with 
several layers of paper, then with smooth boards 
the size of the table, or with window glass. If you 
cannot get boards or glass use cardboard (a suit 
or dress box unfolded will answer), then over 
this put a clean towel or white table-cover. When 
your patient is better she will not spend her con- 
valescence bemoaning the marks and mars on 
her pretty table, made by medicine, hot dishes, 
wet clothes, or a hot-water bag which you laid down 
in a hurry, or a piece of soap which slipped from 
your hand. Everything in the room should be as 
good as when you begin and will be if you use a 
little forethought and care. 

Save all paper bags from the grocery for refuse 
matter from the sick room, soiled absorbent cotton, 
pads, and dressings, pieces of cloth which have 
been used by a patient having a cough. This is 
much better than using a sputum cup, for the little 
pieces of cloth may be put in a bag which is always 
near the patient and in which they may be burned. 



THE SICK ROOM 29 

This saves cleaning the cup which is disagreeable 
and a waste of time, and protects other members 
of the family from any germs which the sputum 
might contain. A paper flour-sack is useful for 
carrying away the soiled bed linen and patient's 
clothes. It is much better than for the nurse to 
gather them up in her arms and whisk them down- 
stairs through hall, dining-room, and kitchen, to 
the laundry or out of doors. 

In case of badly soiled linen, put it in the flour 
sack, open the window, and drop it into the yard, 
then carry it to the tub. This, of course, could 
not be done in the city, but many sick people live 
in the country where the earth under their windows 
belongs to them. 

Would you have a rattlesnake in your sick room? 
Decidedly not. Then why have a fly? Flies 
cause more deaths every year than rattlesnakes. 
He is an annoying thing, walking with his tickling 
feet over your hands and face and giving you a nip 
if you are off your guard. He is a nasty thing 
besides, carrying hundreds of disease germs on his 
feet from the last manure pile, garbage can, or 
dead thing which he walked over, and if you have 
typhoid or any other thing which he can carry, 
he will hurry away with it to your neighbors as 



30 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

fast as his wings can fly with him. So swat the 
fly. Don*t just drive him out. If one is smart 
enough to slip in to your sick room you be smart 
enough not to let him slip out again. With a 
folded paper, a sticky fly paper, or a wire swatter, 
finish his murderous career and then inter his 
mangled remains in the paper bag with the other 
refuse of the room to be cremated later and thus 
end that fly. 

Sometimes the nurse must do the family mend- 
ing or stocking darning, while sitting with her 
patient. The nurse should give herself all the 
rest and comfort possible whenever she can and 
should sit in an easy chair when she is able to sit 
at all; but do not rock and let your heels hit the 
floor, do not drum with your flngers on the table 
or the arm of the chair, do not hum under your 
breath. A good hearty song is much better. 
Do not walk on your toes or whisper, just go 
about in a natural way unless the patient be 
asleep, then keep the entire family quiet. Keep 
the medicines in another room and where the 
children cannot get at them. 

Do not have too many strongly scented flowers 
in the room at once. Hyacinths, syringas, lilies, 
sweet peas, etc., which are so delightful out of doors. 



THE SICK ROOM 31 

are sometimes strong in the house and quite out 
of the question in a sick room. If your patient 
has many gifts of these, bring in one vase at a 
time. When you leave the room for something 
else take a vase out with you and bring back an- 
other. The patient will be pleased by the variety 
and your thoughtfulness. It takes very little 
to entertain when the horizon is limited. All 
flowers should be taken from the room at night 
and put in a cool place and should be sorted, re- 
arranged, and given fresh water before they are 
again taken to the sick room. 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 

The bed in your patient's room shotdd be a 
single iron one. Every house should have such a 
bed. It could be used in a small bedroom, or 
for a child if an extra one for sickness cannot be 
afforded. Then when an emergency arises some 
other provision can be made for the usual occupant. 
If you live in the country or village and are not 
able to buy one in a hurry you will no doubt be 
able to borrow one from some of yoiu* friends, if 
your illness is not contagious but is a maternity 
case or broken leg, for instance. I am not certain 
of city people. They as a rule are not on bed- 
borrowing terms with their neighbors, but such 
friendliness is not as much needed in the city 
where there are large clean hospitals, with wide 
welcoming doors always open to receive emer- 
gencies and those who cannot be well cared for 
at home. 

Have a high bed. You will find the high bed 
is much easier, saving yourself many backaches, 

32 




The Box Securely Tied to 
THE Bed 




Place the Springs on the 

Boxes and you have a 

High Bed 



MAKING THE PATIENT^S BED 33 

and the doctor will rise up and call you blessed. 
The patient is just as comfortable, for when she 
is convalescent she can use a stool, hassock, or 
box for getting out and in bed. Any one who 
has visited a hospital will remember the high 
beds. People will always ask about them and 
are much interested when told that there is the 
same difficulty in working over a low bed that 
there is in working over a low kitchen table. With 
the low bed the tiresome bend of the back becomes 
agony long before the patient is bathed and in 
order for the day. Make a high bed this way: 
Take two strong boards which will reach across 
the frame of the bed. To each end of these 
nail firmly a box about twelve inches high. Soap 
boxes do nicely. Place one board at the head and 
the other at the foot of the bed with the boxes 
on top. Bore holes through the box corners 
which come next the posts of the bed, run through 
these a piece of clothes line and tie firmly to the 
posts. Lay the springs on the boxes, and over the 
springs spread a sheet, then put the mattress in 
place and make the bed. The sheet over the 
springs covers the boxes, and when the bed is 
made it looks like a hospital bed and as inviting 
as the bed in the picture ''Ready for the Patient." 



34 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Many people recommend placing blocks under 
the legs of the bed to raise it, but if this is done the 
bed cannot be moved. It is sometimes necessary 
to raise the bed at the foot in case of hemorrhage 
after childbirth or an operation. It is very nice 
to be able to move the bed on the casters when 
cleaning, if the room is small or, as the patient 
begins to sit up in bed, it makes life much more in- 
teresting if she can be wheeled over by the window 
for a little while each day. None of these things 
could be done if the casters were off and the legs 
of the bed on blocks. 

I do not know if all the feather beds have yet 
been made into pillows, but I hope so. They 
must not be used on a sick bed, even if dear to the 
heart of the patient. They cause bed sores, can- 
not be cleaned or aired, hold dampness and 
smells, and are altogether an abomination. If you 
have a patient who has used feathers try in every 
diplomatic way you can think of to get her to 
abandon them. It is hard for very old people to 
change their ways, but it is the feeling of being 
snug and warm which they like. If you put a 
thick comfortable or two over the mattress, with 
a quilted pad or a cheesecloth and cotton one 
under the sheet, I think you will be able to manage 




Ready for the Patient 




Waiting for Breakfast 



[Page 176] 



p 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 35 

without hard feelings either of the body or the 
mind. Try to arrange the bed without argument 
or friction with your patient. The smartest nurse 
is one who does the best thing and has her own 
way without the patient being conscious of it. 

Put the comfortables on the bed, leaving room 
at the top to tuck them in tightly. They can be 
ptilled at the foot and from each side to take 
out the wrinkles. This will keep the bed soft 
and warm for old bodies who love feathers. If 
they are cold, wrap the legs and feet in a flannel 
blanket. Never put anything in the bed which 
cannot be aired and laundered. If there has to 
be an argument about the feathers do not preen 
yourself and be irritating because you have gained 
your point. Such little things hurt the feelings 
of sick or old people. Let loving kindness and 
forbearance be your motto and always be very 
careful to do exactly as you would be done by. 

Always have a protecting pad of some kind over 
the mattress, either in sickness or in health. It 
keeps your bed clean. The mattress will look 
new a long time, and in case of accident the pad 
is easily washed. 

When making the bed for a sick person after 
the springs are raised to the desired height and the 



36 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

mattress is in place, put on the pad or quilt, 
leaving enough at the head to tuck firmly under the 
mattress. Bed clothing under a sick person 
always crawls up, not down, and if the mattress 
cover and imdersheet are firmly anchored at the 
head they can be pulled from the foot and sides, 
keeping the bed without wrinkles. 

Over the mattress cover, put the bottom sheet, 
tucking in firmly at the top (if the sheet must be 
short anywhere, let it be at the foot). Tuck the 
sheet in on the side, not in a roll, but put it as 
far under the mattress as it will go. This will 
hold it in place. Then go to the other side of the 
bed and pull the sheet tightly across, tucking 
imder the mattress as you pull. Take pains with 
the comers, making them like neatly done pack- 
ages. Pull the sheet at the bottom to remove any 
wrinkles ; also the pad underneath. 

Nurses at one time were told to pin sheets or 
bed clothing in place, but that is an old idea in 
these days and is not now considered necessary 
if the bed is well made. It is not soothing for the 
sick housekeeper to hear her good sheets tearing 
three-cornered holes in themselves every time she 
turns over in bed, and no matter how kind her 
nurse has been, there will be a little hard feeling 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 37 

in the housekeeper's heart every time she mends 
or sees these ugly three-cornered tears. 

Do not feel that because you have a narrow bed 
you must have narrow sheets. The wide ones 
stay in place much better. If you have narrow 
sheets and wish to use them they make splendid 
drawsheets and can be used for a top sheet, and 
then if wrinkled but not soiled, for drawsheets. 
Always have a wide sheet for the bottom one if 
possible. If your patient is very ill, staying in 
bed all the time and therefore using a bedpan, 
a sheet called a drawsheet in the hospital will be 
necessary. Get, if you can, a piece of rubber 
cloth, one yard wide and a couple of yards long. 
Place this across the bed where the patient's 
hips will come. If a rubber cloth is not to be 
had, a table oilcloth may be used. This is not 
as soft but will protect the bed. Several large 
newspapers with a layer of cotton basted on top 
will do for an emergency. The rubber cloth 
must be washed if soiled. The paper and cotton 
pad burned. Never have a disagreeable odor 
about your patient's bed. Over the rubber 
sheet put the narrow sheet or a wide sheet folded 
hem to hem, the hems toward the foot of the bed. 
Tuck under the mattress as far as you can on one 



38 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

side, then go to the other side of the bed and 
pull both rubber sheet and drawsheet tight and 
smooth, tucking them under the mattress firmly. 
The top sheet is put on wrong side up, the 
wide hem at the top. Tuck it in enough at the 
foot to keep it from pulling up, leaving it as long 
as you can at the head. Then over this put the 
blankets or quilt. Blankets are better than 
quilts for they give more warmth in proportion 
to their weight and can be more easily washed. 
Tuck these in at the foot, making them six or 
eight inches shorter than the sheet. If you 
have a thin dimity counterpane it may be used, 
but never a heavy one. Use a sheet in place of a 
counterpane making it come as high as the 
blankets, then fold the top edge of the upper sheet 
back over the blankets and sheet-counterpane. 
This brings the hem right side out, keeps the 
blankets from being soiled by food or medicine 
and the irritating flannel from touching the face 
or hands. The white covering gives the bed a 
neat appearance. Have as many pillows, large 
and small, as you can get. They help so much in 
changing the position of the patient. These 
should be aired on the line or put on the piazza 
each morning when the patient is having her bath. 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 39 

Two light blankets are always warmer than one 
heavy one. Blankets come in pairs and some 
people seem to have a horror of cutting them in 
two. They are very hard to use this way, heavy 
to wash and handle, and do not go on the bed as well 
as when cut. It would be about as sensible to say, 
*'I will not cut my dish towels in yard lengths; 
they might be more convenient that way but they 
come from the store in one piece.'* The edge of 
the blankets can be finished with a binding which 
comes for that purpose and can be found at the 
notion counter in any department store. A 
ribbon can be used or, cheapest of all, the edge can 
be buttonholed or crocheted with yarn to match 
the color of the stripe of the blanket. 

The method of changing the bed with the 
patient in it is told in Baths for the Sick (page 

44). 

Do not keep your patient too warm. On the 
other hand, do not leave arms, shoulders, and 
chest out in the air. When your patient is lying 
on her side, see that her back and shoulders are 
covered. If your blanket and sheets are not 
long enough to cover her nicely, use a little extra 
blanket or knitted shawl. This is liked very much 
if thrown across the chest when lying on the 



40 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

back. The hands and arms have more freedom 
than when they must be under the bedclothes to 
keep warm. A knitted jacket or kimono, put on 
back to front, is nice if your patient sits up in 
bed, or reads. The room can be kept cooler with 
this simple arrangement and the patient will not 
mind the cool fresh air. You can also put your 
top blanket a little higher than the bottom one. 
If this becomes pulled up too high, the fact of its 
being on top makes it very easy to readjust. 

If you have a limited supply of pillow-cases, 
use the fresh one each time for the pillow under the 
patient's head. Use the wrinkled ones for the 
pillows to be placed under the knees and back. 
. Change the sheets each morning. They may 
not be soiled, but if hung out of doors, well aired, 
and folded and used to change with the next 
day it will be almost as refreshing as if perfectly 
clean ones were used, and when the amount of 
laundry is an important item, this plan works 
very well. If the top hem of the sheet is wrinkled, 
turn the bottom hem to the top. 

A comfortable bed has much to do with your 
patient's peace of mind and body. 

When a patient is very ill and not able to lift 
herself at all, you will need the help of another 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 41 

person when changing sheets or moving her. 
Change the sheet from the'top to the bottom. 

Roll loosely a clean sheet, beginning at the 
narrow or bottom hem and roll to within three feet 
of the wide hem. Remove the pillows and gently 
pull the sheet from under the mattress all around 
the bed. Roll the sheet which is on the bed to- 
ward your patient's head, then laying the roll 
of the clean sheet close beside the roll of the soiled 
one tuck the top of the clean one under the mat- 
tress, so it will not be pulled out as you draw it 
down utider your patient. Lift the patient's 
head and shoulders on your hand and arm, her 
head on your arm and your hand under her far 
shoulder. Your assistant will then quickly but 
gently roll the soiled sheet and unroll the clean 
one, keeping the rolls side by side. You and 
your assistant will stand on opposite sides of the 
bed and lift the patient by putting your hands 
under her, rolling one sheet and unrolling the 
other until you have the soiled one off and the 
clean one in place. Trained nurses sometimes 
prefer folding the sheet in folds four or six inches 
wide, one fold on top of the other like accordion 
pleating, but many people are not accustomed to 
handle sheets as often or as deftly as a trained 



42 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

nurse and rolled sheets will be easier for the 
amateur. You can try both ways and use which- 
ever suits you best, but do not practice on a help- 
less patient. 

A clean draw sheet can be rolled and put in 
place in the same way only from side to side. 
Pull out the ends of the soiled drawsheet. If the 
nightdress is soiled, change it and keep the fresh 
one up and away from the soiled sheet. Tuck the 
clean end of the soiled drawsheet under the 
patient. Bathe the patient and dry carefully. 
If the rubber sheet is soiled, wash it and dry 
thoroughly, then put the clean drawsheet in 
place and with your helper work the two sheets 
under the patient, working slowly and gently. 

The nightdresses or nightshirt for very ill and 
helpless patients should be cut down the front 
and put on front side to the back. Keep a pad 
under the patient's hips, as this will save changing 
the drawsheet so often and will also save laundry. 
Make the pads of newspapers with a thick layer 
of absorbent cotton on top and a piece of old 
muslin or cheesecloth basted over the cotton. 
When the bowels move without warning the use 
of these pads will save the strength of the patient 
who is very weak and should not be moved. 



MAKING THE PATIENT'S BED 43 

These pads should be burned at once when they 
are soiled, and a number kept on hand, for 
when one is needed there will not be time to 
make it. 



wm 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 

The surface of the body is covered with little 
openings, and through these openings waste 
material is thrown off. We all know how disagree- 
able a well person is, if he does not bathe, and it is 
not the dirt which he has collected in shop or 
garden which makes us like to keep between him 
and the wind, but the refuse matter which has 
been discarded by his own body and to which he 
lovingly clings. 

There is the oily matter which keeps the skin 
in a healthy condition and little particles of skin 
which are always dying and always being removed. 
The tiny sweat tubes carry oif the waste water in 
the system and leave discarded, ill-smelling mate- 
rial on the skin. Even a well person is much 
healthier and far more agreeable if he takes many 
baths. 

A sick person staying in bed all day needs bath- 
ing as much as, if not more than, a well person, who 
is up and working and getting plenty of fresh air. 

44 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 45 

A good bath is a tonic. It is stimulating and 
refreshing. I once knew a woman who objected 
to having a bath, saying she had been in bed for 
a week and therefore had no chance to get dirty. 
It was hard to convince her that the dirt I wanted 
to remove was that which came from her own 
body, and not from other sources. She was so 
much more comfortable after it was over that 
there was no objection to the second bath. 

Do not try to bathe your patient in a china 
bowl. The water becomes soapy and cold quickly. 
If you cannot have a tin foot-tub, use a new dish 
pan. One can usually be bought at the ten-cent 
store ; not very good tin, to be sure, but good enough 
for your purpose. You can then have a quantity 
of hot water, and the tin tub or pan with handles is 
easier to carry. Some people may object to being 
bathed in a dish pan but it holds the water just 
as well and the difference is only in shape. Just 
tell your patient it is a new fashion in tubs. 

When it is time for your patient's bath (which 
should be given every morning, not sooner than 
one hour after she has had her breakfast) carry 
everything you will need to her room, with the 
exception of the hot water, before getting your 
patient ready. A tray or common market basket. 



46 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

will save many steps. In the market basket 
have two towels, a soft one for the face and ears, 
and a bath towel, two wash cloths, a face cloth 
and a crash one for the body, a piece of soap 
(Ivory is better than cheap scented kinds), a 
whisk broom for brushing the sheets, a bottle of 
alcohol, a tin of talcum powder, comb and brush, 
scissors and nail file, and, if you like, a bottle of 
toilet water. Every little dainty thing which is 
done for your patient adds to the general feeling 
of comfort and contentment, and sometimes a few 
drops of lavender water makes a plain bath a 
luxurious performance. Place a table or chair 
near the bed to hold your bath pan, get clean 
sheets and pillow-cases, if they are needed, and 
fresh nightdress; put these to air. Then get the 
patient ready. Roll a blanket; begin at the edge 
and roll toward the center with the roll going 
lengthwise of the blanket, roll until half of the 
blanket is left, then with your patient on her 
side, lay the roll tightly along her back. Turn 
the patient on her other side and this will bring 
her over on the blanket. Then unroll the blanket 
and cover the patient. With your patient on her 
back and well covered, remove the nightdress. 
Pull it up from the bottom, the patient lifting 



ws^wmm 



\\ 



^MLW 



Make the Tray as Attractive as Possible 



[Page 57] 




>" 






The Way to Roll a Blanket or Sheet 



I 

! 



m 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 47 

herself by pressing on her heels; work it up until 
you have the hem of the nightdress under her 
neck, then pull if off over her head, one sleeve 
at a time, covering with the blanket as you un- 
cover with the nightdress. Leave your patient 
tucked snugly in the blanket while you go for the 
hot water. Start with a small amount of warm 
water for face and ears — then add a little from time 
to time from a pail or pitcher of hot water which 
you brought in with the tub. Bathe a small space 
and dry well before bathing more — an arm at 
a time, then the chest, abdomen, back, and legs. 
Dry carefully. When you come to the feet, have 
the water warm and plenty of it. Put the bath 
pan on the bed so the patient may be able to put 
her feet in it. There are two great things in the 
world, being in love is one, and the sick person who 
is able to put her feet in the water can tell you 
what the other is. If you doubt me, try it on 
someone who has been in bed for days without a 
bath. 

Wipe dry between the toes and, if needed, cut 
the nails and file sharp edges. Dust with talcum 
powder under the arms, between the thighs and 
toes, and under the knees. It is also refreshing 
to have an alcohol rub, but if there is not time, 



48 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

leave this until the patient is prepared for the 
night. 

After the bath is finished, turn your patient 
on one side. If the sheets need to be changed, 
do it at this time. Roll the soiled sheets close 
to the patient, then roll the clean ones and put 
in place as you did the bath blanket when you 
began the bath. Turn your patient and you 
have her lying on the clean sheets with the soiled 
ones behind her. These can easily be removed 
and the fresh ones tucked in. Always be careful 
to get the sheet where it must stay; enough to tuck 
in at the top and not too much at either side. Lay 
a blanket over your patient, then remove the 
bath blanket and put on a clean nightgown. This 
does not leave your patient imcovered or exposed 
to cold at any time. Then over this blanket 
spread a sheet and another blanket, and puU out 
the blanket next the patient, which can be put 
on top. Finish making the bed as directed, 
making everything under the patient absolutely 
without wrinkles and everything on top straight 
and trim. Take an artistic pride in making the 
bed look well. 

If the patient is very ill, and cannot be turned, 
place a bath towel or small blanket under the 




Ready for the Bath 




With her Feet in the Bath Pan 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 49 

parts to be bathed and with another blanket over 
her, bathe carefully. Do not wet the bed or 
nightclothes. Never have wet spots on the 
sheets or nightgown. Dry the creases well and 
use powder. Dry by laying a towel over the 
patient and rubbing on towel, not rubbing the 
towel on the patient, in that way irritating tender 
skin. 

After the patient is comfortable and tidy, 
remove the things you used for the bath. If 
the sheets are not soiled, hang them out in the 
sun and wind ; then fold them nicely and they can 
be put back the next day and will feel fresh and 
sweet. It is more comforting to your patient 
to change the sheets this way than to leave them 
on until they are actually soiled. When bathing 
your patient do not wet the bath blanket. Wash the 
wash-cloths and dry out of doors, also dry the 
bath blanket if it is damp and if you must be very 
careful about the amount of linen you use, wash 
the towels also, snap out the wrinkles, and hang 
out of doors. These need not be ironed. When 
perfectly dry, fold and put in your basket for use 
next day. Use one nightdress for day time and 
another at night. Men are not supposed to be 
vain, but we all know women are and I once heard 



50 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

a doctor say, "I always know that a woman is 
better when she begins to take interest in her 
personal appearance.'* Save the dainty nightie 
with the pink bow until after the bath. Part the 
"sick-a-bed" lady's hair in the middle from her 
forehead to the nape of her neck and braid back of 
each ear. Don't let the braids be lumpy or hard 
next to the head, as they are uncomfortable to lie 
upon. Let her hair be soft and loose aroimd her 
face and if you can get them, tie a pink bow on 
each braid. Keep her finger nails nice and give 
her a clean handkerckief with a drop of toilet 
water on it. Do all this if possible before the 
doctor comes. She will be pleased (as she is a 
woman and vain) to have the doctor see her at her 
best. The doctor will like it also. I have never 
seen a man whom I thought did not like to look 
nicely, to have his hair brushed, to be shaved, and 
have his nails cared for, or even the drop of laven- 
der on his handkerchief. But they were no doubt 
concealing their real feelings (being men and not 
vain), and were enduring the *' fixing up" just to 
please me. 

Baths are used many times for medicinal 
purposes as well as for cleanliness. 

A salt bath is stimulating and refreshing. A 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 51 

hot mustard foot bath is helpful to relieve 
headache. A cold spinal bath or douche is often 
recommended for aching nerves. A soda bath 
soothes an itching skin and a cooling bath reduces 
fever temperature. y^ 

SALT BATH 

In the hospital where everything is convenient 
and all needed supplies can be had at a moment's 
notice, things can be done quite differently than 
at home where one must use the things at hand. 
And while in the hospital, the patient having a 
salt bath is rubbed with salt and sprayed, there 
is a very good substitute and one which can be 
easily managed at home. Put the patient in a 
bath blanket as for a cleansing bath. Put a tea- 
cupful of salt in a wash basin half full of cool 
water and with a large crash wash cloth wrung 
out of this, rub your patient briskly over her 
entire body, making the skin red, but not sore. 
Then with a clean cloth and fresh water wash 
away the salt and dry gently. 

MUSTARD BATH 

The hot mustard foot-bath is made by adding 
one tablespoon of mustard to four quarts of 



I 

J 



52 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

water. Mix the mustard with a little cold water 
and add this to the warm water in the foot tub. 
The mustard mixes better with cold water than 
with hot and with a small quantity than with a 
tub half full. Hot water must not be used for 
mixing it (for too much heat destroys the virtue 
of the mustard). As the water cools, a little 
more hot water may be added. When pouring 
warm water into the tub in which your patient's 
feet are soaking always put your hand in the 
water between the feet and the place where you 
pour. You will be able to tell just how hot you 
are making it, and then will not bum your patient 
by pouring hot water on her feet. Dry the feet 
carefully and if the bed is cold, wrap them in a 
warm blanket. 

SPINAL BATH OR DOUCHE 

If your patient is able to go into the bathroom, 
fold a bath towel on the edge of the tub, and with a 
kimono or wrapper put on back to front, let her 
sit on the towel outside of the tub. Put something 
under her feet if they do not touch the floor, then 
with a little hose attached to the cold water 
faucet or with cold water in a pitcher, pour it 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 53 

down her back, keeping over the spine. Begin 
at the back of the neck. You need not wet her 
hair or clothing if you do this carefully, and I 
advise you to close the door and windows even in 
summer, for she will howl the first few times it is 
done. I knew of one woman who would not do 
this for her daughter even when ordered by the 
doctor and with the daughter anxious to have it 
done. She said it was heathenish and cruel, but 
it is the idea of cold water which frightens people, 
and any one with aching nerves in their back 
is very much relieved by the cooling bath. It 
removes the inflammation and makes one feel as 
if they had a new back. 

SODA BATH 

A soda bath is used for extreme itching of the 
skin, as in heat rash or hives. You will probably 
have a pound box of baking soda in the pantry. 
Add a quarter of this box to two quarts of cold 
water. Dip a heavy wash cloth in this and bathe 
and pat the body gently. Do not dry with a towel, 
but let it evaporate. If the body is well covered 
with the rash you will need more water and more 
soda. The hands, which are usually so painful 
in hives, may be held in the water a few minutes. 



54 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

BATH FOR REDUCING TEMPERATURE 

A bath for reducing temperature is often needed 
in typhoid and in other fevers, or in heat prostra- 
tion or sunstroke. If you have a rubber cloth, 
cover it with a sheet and put under the patient, or 
if there is no rubber cloth use the woolen bath 
blanket with the cotton sheet over it. The 
woolen sheet will keep the bed from becoming 
damp. Put a piece of ice in a bowl or wash basin, 
and pour over it water and alcohol, half and 
half. Remove the patient's nightdress, spread 
a towel over her thighs, and put a cold wet cloth 
on her head. Remove the top sheet. A fever 
patient who must have temperature-reducing 
baths should have no covering but a sheet. Dip 
a wash cloth in the alcohol and water, squeeze 
just enough to prevent dripping and wetting the 
bed-clothing, and sponge gently over the patient's 
body. Let the alcohol and water evaporate. 
Do this two or three times and then, after she 
becomes accustomed to the cold water, with a 
large palm leaf fan, fan her to make the evapora- 
tion quicker. This can be done for fifteen minutes 
at a time. Turn the patient on her side if the 
doctor allows her to be moved, and her back and 



BATHS FOR THE SICK 55 

hips can be wet and fanned dry in the same way. 
This is the easiest way for a patient to have a 
cooling bath and the least trouble for a nurse who 
is working at home, as so few things are required 
and one person can manage it all. 



THE TRAY 

When the patient is ready for breakfast, if she 
is able to sit up in bed, with two or three pillows 
at her back and a pillow under her knees, give 
her a table made from a box, and a newspaper 
or magazine, to read. The time will not seem as 
long while she is waiting for breakfast. 

When preparing your patient's tray do not take 
a great quantity of food at once. It is better to 
go for more than to have her appetite taken away 
by the sight of too much. Be sure your patient 
eats. If she is weak or tired or seems indifferent, 
feed her yourself. Put a large napkin or towel 
well up under her chin in order that crumbs may 
not get in the neck of her nightdress. Give her 
her meals regularly but not too much at a time. 
If the patient is on full diet, give three meals and 
nourishment between. The diet is always ordered 
by the doctor, and if he is willing, you can vary it by 
giving between meals, milk, eggnog, broth, malted 
milk, gruels of different kinds, egg lemonade, a 

56 



THE TRAY 57 

custard, ice cream if you know how and where it is 
made, cocoa, or buttermilk. 

If only half a glass of milk is taken, do not leave 
it in the sick room for the next time but put it in a 
clean glass and set in a cool place until it is needed. 
Alternate the nourishment in order that your 
patient may not become tired of one thing. Give 
plenty of fresh drinking water or, if she is feverish, 
give her a glass of cold lemonade if she has not had 
calomel. She may not know that she wants it but 
will be delighted when you give it to her. A cup 
of hot tea or coffee is stimulating and very refresh- 
ing, especially if unexpected. 

Make the tray attractive. Use your finest 
china and silver. Keep the tray cloth and nap- 
kins immaculate, and while her diet may be re- 
stricted to one slice of toast and a cup of coffee or 
a glass of hot milk, make the serving of it a cere- 
mony. If possible put a flower on the tray, an 
autumn leaf in the fall or a pussy willow in the 
spring. When I had no flower I sometimes 
used clippings from the newspapers — some funny 
little verse or joke. These things are diversions 
and count for much more to a patient than any 
one knows who has not tried them. 

Try and arrange to give your patient her break- 



58 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

fast after the family have eaten, if the family- 
breakfast is an early one, but if the others are late 
risers, it would be best to give the patient her meal 
first. Do not keep her waiting if it can be avoided. 
Give the noon meal first, also the night meal. 
Then nothing which comes up or no one who comes 
in will delay you. It tires and does more harm 
to a patient to lie and wait and wonder if she is 
entirely forgotten, than to go hungry. Waiting 
is hard for strong people and doubly so for weak 
ones. 

A sick person usually likes less sugar and more 
salt than when well but do not over-season food. 
The safest way is to season lightly and put a salt 
shaker on the tray. 

If your patient may have oranges, take the juice 
out with a glass lemon-squeezer and serve in a 
glass. In summer add a small piece of ice or 
put on the ice before serving. This is dainty and 
much easier for the patient than eating it with a 
spoon or in the fingers and saves soiling the bed 
or nightgown. 

If your patient must be fed, do it slowly with a 
teaspoon or fork, giving a very small quantity 
at a time. Do not hurry her. If she has liquid 
diet and cannot eat from a spoon, you can buy at 



THE TRAY 59 

the drug store, the china store, or even the ten- 
cent store, a feeding cup with a Htttle spout through 
which the patient can drink. Some people Hke a 
glass drinking tube. If you live miles in the 
country, you may not be able to get these con- 
veniences, so you must use something else. Do 
you remember, you country people, when you were 
quite young, how you greeted with enthusiasm the 
barrel of sweet cider which was brought home 
each fall? Do you remember the little hole in the 
side of the barrel called the bung-hole and how 
you and the other small girls and boys spliced 
together long straws which you found in the big 
barn? Put them in the bung hole and sucked the 
cider through them? Well, you can apply this 
very thing to your sick people. The clean 
straws are splendid things to help in drinking 
milk, thin gruel, broth, orange juice, or any liquid 
which the patient must take. If medicines con- 
taining iron are taken in this manner it will be 
much better for the teeth. 

When your patient can eat from a tray, make 
the meals dainty and attractive, for the eye must 
be pleased as well as the appetite. Get the tray 
ready before you prepare the hot food, then 
nothing will be cold. When you make toast do 



6o THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

not use'^new bread and toast it quickly on each side 
but use old bread, toasting slowly and turning 
frequently. Then you will have toast, not a 
slice of bread seared on the outside and soggy in 
the middle. Do not give your patient coffee with 
half of it spilled in the saucer; it is not appetiz- 
ing and the coffee drips from the bottom of the 
cup, soiling the tray cloth and the bed Hnen. 
The best way is to carry tea or coffee to the sick 
room in a little pot or a cream pitcher. Warm 
the pot, or cream pitcher, and the cup by pouring 
hot water in them, then they will not chill the 
tea or coffee. 

Use a spoon with holes, or a skimmer, to take a 
poached egg out of the water, when it is to be 
served on toast. Then your toast will not have 
to act as a sponge to take up the water. Always 
have everything which should be hot, very hot, 
and cold things, very cold. Put hot food on hot 
plates and cover with a hot bowl. 

First get the patient ready for the tray, then the 
tray ready for the food, then cook the food and it 
will be hot and appetizing. 



PREPARING THE PATIENT FOR THE 
NIGHT 

The rest of the patient is more important at 
night than during the day, and if her bed is well 
made and comfortable, it will be a great help in 
securing healing and refreshing sleep. So from a 
selfish standpoint, it is better to spend a half- 
hour in making her absolutely comfortable before 
going to bed. 

A sick person should have no company during 
the evening, as it is more than likely to stir up her 
nerves and make her sleepless. 

If you sleep on a cot or couch in your patient's 
room, get this ready for yourself before preparing 
your patient for sleep. Then nothing need disturb 
her after she is once quiet. 

Take out all flowers, change her nightdress, 
give her the bedpan, and wash her hands and 
face and between her thighs. Dry carefully and 
powder. Clean her teeth, comb and braid her 
hair if she is not too tired. Rub her back, especi- 

6i 



62 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

ally the small of the back and her shoulders and 
buttocks with alcohol, for these are the places 
which get so tired and where bed sores come. 
If you have time and strength rub her arms and 
legs also with alcohol. You need not use pure 
alcohol, use alcohol and water, half and half. If 
you have no alcohol, use vinegar and water. Do 
not drag a cold hand up and down her back in a 
listless manner, as one patient said, "like a dead 
fish," but place the palm of your hand firmly on 
her back, or the back of her neck, and move the 
flesh gently without raising your hand. This 
massages the muscles. Do this the entire length 
of the spine, wetting your hands occasionally with 
alcohol. If the alcohol is cold, set the bottle in a 
basin of hot water before using. 

Talcum powder may be dusted on the back and 
finish the rubbing with long strokes. Do not do 
this in a hurry, and always rub down, not up. 
This will often induce sleep without the aid of 
drugs. 

Brush the sheets and draw them tight and 
smooth. See that her feet are warm and her 
pillow comfortable. Give her a handkerchief 
and shade the light. Cover the patient with an 
extra blanket, open all the windows, and air the 



PREPARING PATIENT FOR NIGHT 63 

room thoroughly. Fix the windows as you want 
them for the night, and when the room is warm 
enough, remove the extra blanket. Fold this 
over the foot of the bed for use very early in the 
morning, as the patient will need more covering 
at that time. 

Everyone should keep quiet and if possible you 
should undress in another room. Come in and 
go to bed without talking to her. Nothing should 
disturb her after she is once ready for sleep. 

If the patient has trouble in going to sleep, 
you may give her a glass of hot milk with a pinch 
of salt in it, a cup of hot broth, malted milk, hot 
lemonade and a cracker, or a cup of cocoa, and a 
hot- water bag at her feet. Sometimes, just being 
snug and warm will make her sleepy, or if your 
patient can go in the bathroom, try a warm bath. 
A sick person should not be left alone in a bath 
tub. If you take your patient to the bathroom, 
see that everything you will need is there before 
taking her in. Do not leave her until she is dried 
and in bed. A person who has been ill is quite 
liable to faint or fall, and if such a thing happens 
you will be glad that you are on hand. 

Continued deep breathing of fresh air will 
often put one to sleep. Ask your patient to count 



64 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the times she breathes deeply and see how many 
times she can do it. She may be asleep before she 
finishes coimting. 

A tumed-down lamp or gas jet is not a good 
thing. It spoils the air. Have a tiny lamp if you 
need a light at night. If you do not have electric 
light, a candle is useful, for it can be lighted 
quickly. You should keep this, with a box of 
safety matches, near your bed. If a lamp or a 
bright light is used, it must always be shaded. 

A very sick patient should not be left alone 
nor should the nurse sleep at night. Sudden 
changes during an illness often take place during 
the night. If your patient has been delirious, 
she may get out of bed at this time. If she does 
not sleep well the doctor should know it. Write 
it on your record, just how much or how little 
she has slept. 



A RECORD FOR THE DOCTOR 

Do not keep the medicines in the sick room or 
where the children can reach them. Many times 
sick people think if a small dose is good, a large 
one will be better, or a despondent patient might 
get the idea that it would be a clever thing to 
take all the strychnine tablets at once and end 
the story. I know you would like your story to be 
a continued one and not end in that abrupt and 
distressing manner. Little children will eat any 
bright-colored pill or tablet or drink anything 
which tastes sweet. Many grown-ups have been 
fascinated by the sight of little bottles of pink, 
red, brown, purple, and yellow tablets in the , 
doctor's bag and how much more fascinating 
would they be to a little child. So these things 
must be put where the children cannot see them 
and where the sick person cannot reach them. 

If the doctor orders medicine to be given before 
meals it should be given one half-hour before. 

5 65 



66 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Those to be given after meals one half-hour 
after. 

If the doctor leaves three kinds of medicine 
to be given, for example, pink tablets four times 
a day, white tablets before meals, and a liquid 
every two hours, have the doctor write the direc- 
tions for you or write it yourself while he is still 
there, so you may make no mistakes. Then 
take a piece of paper and mark it like this : 

White tablet — before meals. 

Pink tablet — 8 — 12 — ^4—8, etc. 

Liquid medicine — 6 — 8 — 10 — 12 — 2 — 4. — 6, etc. 

Then as you give the medicine, cross off the 
time on the paper, and there will be no argument 
as to the time of the next dose. 

Sometimes the doctor will leave two glasses 
of liquid medicine to be given alternately every 
hour. Cut two five-inch squares of cardboard 
and on one write the odd hours 7 — 9 — 11 — i — 3 
— 5 and on the other 6 — 8 — 10 — 12 — 2 — 4. — 6. 
Place a card on top of each glass. This serves 
as a cover as well as avoiding confusion. 

In case the medicine is to be given every fifteen 
minutes or half -hour it would take a great amount 
of writing and crossing off, so if you are to give 
first one and then the other, lay the spoon on 



A RECORD FOR THE DOCTOR 67 

top of the one you are to give next. Give your 
patient a swallow of water both before and after 
the medicine, if it is unpleasant to take. 

Powders may be given dry on the tongue. 
Give a swallow of water first and then making a 
little trough of the powder paper, pour the powder 
on the tongue, and give a drink of water. If you 
and the patient are careful this will avoid dis- 
tributing unpleasant medicine around the teeth 
and under the tongue. If the powder is bitter, 
a little sugar will often dispel the bitter taste. 

When the bowels must be made to move quickly, 
a medicine called a purgative is given. This may 
be Seidlitz powder, Pluto water, salts, etc., and 
is given early in the morning before breakfast. 

A gentle medicine for moving the bowels is 
called a laxative or cathartic and is usually given 
at night, as it does not disturb the patient's sleep. 

There are several ways of giving medicine: by 
mouth, by inhaling, by rectum, and with a hy- 
podermic syringe. When a patient is to inhale 
the medicine it is added to hot water, then the 
patient breathes the steam into his nose and 
throat. 

When medicine is given in the bowel it is in- 
jected in the rectum by means of a syringe or 



68 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

rubber tube. Nourishment is also given this 
way when it cannot be retained in the stomach. 

Medicine is also given by means of a hypoder- 
mic syringe. These methods are taught to the 
nurses in the hospitals, but a hypodermic syringe 
would not be used by an imtrained nurse unless 
she could be taught by a trained nurse or a doctor. 

A suppository is a cone-shaped piece of cocoa- 
butter containing medicine and which can be 
absorbed by the bowel. The suppository should 
be covered by oil or vaseline. Oil the firbt finger 
and with it push the suppository gently into the 
rectum the length of your finger. The finger nail 
should not be sharp to avoid hurting in the least 
the delicate lining of the bowel. The bowel should 
be empty when the suppository is given. 

In the hospital a sheet of ruled paper called a 
chart is used. On this a record of all things per- 
taining to the patient is kept. Treatment, medi- 
cine, and food, each has a column by itself, and 
another column headed "remarks" is used in 
which the nurse writes a report of special symp- 
toms, complaints of pain, or anything she thinks 
the doctor should know. If the doctor wishes 
you to take the temperature and pulse of the 
patient, he can easily teach you how to do it, if 



A RECORD FOR THE DOCTOR 69 

you do not already know. If you will keep a 
record of all that happens between his visits, it 
will help him greatly, and you will not be con- 
science stricken after he is gone, because you for- 
got to tell him something he should know. Take 
a piece of paper and rule and mark it like this. 



Temperature Pulse Bowel Urine 



Medicine Food 



Remarks 



Then fill it in when the different things occur, 
giving the time and as much information as you 
can. It is better to tell too much than not enough. 
The doctor will say what he wishes you to observe, 
and you will find it most interesting to keep a 
record from day to day. If this is done the 
condition of the patient need not be discussed 
before her, and no whispered consultations need 
be held in the hall or downstairs. Some people 
are very suspicious, and when the nurse leaves the 
room to ask the doctor if she may give the patient 
an egg for her supper, she cannot convince the 



70 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

patient that the real errand was not to order her 
coffin. 

Notice how the patient sleeps, if quiet or restless. 
Write this, and the length of time she sleeps, 
on the chart, and then when she gravely assures 
the doctor that she did not sleep a wink all night, 
you will not have to contradict her and make 
yourself disagreeable, but can tell the doctor all 
he wants to know by handing him the chart. 

This chart is the property of the nurse and the 
doctor. It is not for the patient to read or for the 
entertainment of the neighbors. The patient should 
not be told what medicine she is taking nor 
what her pulse and temperature are. If she 
asks what her temperature is some such reply 
as this can be made, ''fine and dandy," etc., 
but not in a way to irritate her. Some people 
get very much alarmed about themselves when 
sick, and if they knew they had one degree of 
fever, would promptly worry themselves up to 
two degrees. 

Record on your chart if your patient is sick 
at the stomach, or vomits; tell what the vomited 
fluid looked like, if it was yellow, black, or stringy, 
how it smelled, or any other imusual thing about 
it. 



A RECORD FOR THE DOCTOR 71 

If the patient has a cough, tell what kind of a 
cough, if it was hoarse or sharp and if the patient 
coughs during the day or night. If there is 
sputum raised by the cough, tell what it looks like. 

Notice if the patient lies in an unusual position, 
with more pillows than usual or always on one 
side. Notice if she lies with her knees drawn up. 

A patient with asthma or heart trouble will 
like plenty of pillows. One with an affected 
lung will lie on one side in order to get all the air 
possible for the other lung, and one with pains in 
the abdomen will be more comfortable with the 
knees raised. 

All these things which may not seem important 
to you until you begin to observe and record them 
on a well-kept chart will be of great help to the 
doctor. 

If the patient complains of pain, ask where it 
is; have her put her hand on the spot. I knew 
a dear little man of four years who gravely 
informed the surgeon, who had come to operate 
on him, that he had a toothache in his side. His 
only aches before had been toothaches and when 
the pain began, he called it that. It was a couple 
of days before the family discovered that the 
toothache was located in his appendix. 



72 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

A young boy in the hospital complained con- 
tinually of a pain in his chest. After a time 
the doctor discovered the pain was in the patient's 
abdomen. The poor child did not know the word 
abdomen and did not think it polite to tell the 
nurse that the pain was in his belly. If the nurse 
had only asked him to put his hand on the pain he 
could have been relieved earlier. 

It is very hard to teach by book how to take 
the pulse and temperature, but any one can be 
taught in a few minutes by their doctor. It is the 
thing everyone should know, especially if there 
are small children in the family. 

The color of bowel movement may be due to 
disease or medicine, so any unusual color or smell 
should be recorded on the chart. The urine should 
be measured and the color and amount recorded. 
In case it is unusual in quantity or color, it should 
be put in a covered dish and kept for the doctor's 
examination. 

Hysterical people often complain of pain, and 
moan when sympathetic people are in the room, 
or when sure of sympathy from any source, but 
will lie perfectly quiet when alone. Sometimes 
such people can be observed by looking through 
the crack in the door. If such symptoms are 



A RECORD FOR THE DOCTOR 73 

noticed, make a note of this on the chart. How- 
ever, one might better err on the side of too 
much sympathy than not enough. The doctor will 
advise, and if he advises a hard heart and disci- 
pline, remember it will be your fault if you do not 
have stamina enough to carry out his directions 
and your patient does not improve. 

Many times a sick person will be stimulated 
by the visit of the doctor or some other person. 
She will sit up in bed, talk, and laugh and then 
as soon as the doctor or visitor has gone, will 
be weak, tired, and in perspiration. This should 
be told also, as many times the doctor will think 
the patient stronger than she really is. 

If you have had a trained nurse for a week only 
and are then going to care for the patient yourself, 
she will give you explicit instructions how it should 
be done ; how to take temperature and pulse ; how 
to give an enema or douche. She will tell you 
about food and medicine, how to make the bed, 
how to give a bath and will help you in every way 
she can. If there are many directions to follow, 
write them down, for it is very easy to forget 
strange words and unaccustomed things. 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 

Every well-regulated house should have a 
medicine closet. This should not be full of drugs 
to be given indiscriminately to all members of the 
family, but should contain things which will 
help to keep them well, for example, soft old muslin 
to cover their burns, and bandages for little fingers 
practicing with the first pocket knife and which 
are brought to mother with bleeding cuts. Some 
things will not be needed until you really have a 
sick person in the family. Few people ever buy 
a bedpan in time of health, but if you can do so 
and live in the country it is as wise to prepare for 
sickness in time of health as to prepare for war in 
time of peace. 

As medical supplies are usually very expensive 
take great care of them. 

The little white medicine cupboards which 
you can buy at the furniture or department stores 
are very expensive and not half large enough 
to hold all the things which should be kept there. 

74 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 75 

They are very fascinating little cupboards, with 
cunning shelves and a mirror on the door, but they 
would serve much better as a china closet for a doll's 
tea set than to hold the necessary articles which 
should be in a grown-up family medicine closet. 

If you cannot have a good-sized medicine closet 
made by a carpenter, you can make one yourself 
from a box which you can get at the grocery. If 
you live in the city you will probably pay a few 
cents for a box. In the country or village it will 
be given to you. Get two boxes while you are 
about it and use one to make shelves for the other. 
The top of the box will make the door. Look over 
the boxes yourself and select one which is smooth 
and strong and which, if stood on end, would 
make a cupboard to fit the place in your house 
where it must hang, for it must be up on the wall 
where the door fastener is out of the reach of little 
hands. 

Buy a tin of white paint, a pair of hinges, 
and a hook or door fastener. These last three 
articles you will be able to buy in the ten-cent 
store. Paint your cupboard outside and in, two or 
three coats. When you put in the shelves, make 
one compartment high enough for tall bottles 
or quart fruit jars. 



76 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

A person who is constipated is not sick in the 
beginning. He may need only exercise or relaxing 
food. But he will be sick if not attended to 
promptly, and therefore it is a wise thing to have a 
cathartic in the house and other simple remedies 
which a mother can use. 

Many times children will need attention, and 
if the doctor is miles away, the mother should be 
able to take their temperature and telephone 
or send a note to him. If you cannot telephone, 
always write the doctor, for people carrying 
messages are likely to forget; even those with 
the kindest hearts and very best intentions. 

If you are a farmer and have no telephone, 
probably the neighbors on the next farm will have 
one, and kind-hearted country people are always 
willing to help in case of sickness or accident. 
When you call the doctor to tell him about the 
baby, half of the other farmers along the line will 
be hearing you also and many times will offer 
advice and assistance. 

If you are able to tell the doctor the child's 
temperature and other symptoms, he may not 
have to come to see her but can tell you what to 
do. This will save him a long ride in the country 
and you a doctor's bill. Still in these days of 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET ^^ 

automobiles, the doctors do not mind the long 
rides as much as they did years ago, when they 
must come in from a hard trip over muddy rough 
roads, change horses, snatch a bite to eat, and drive 
away again, through the heat of summer or the 
cold of winter. Now he can fly from one patient 
to another without thinking of his tired horse and 
occasionally have time to rest a bit himself and 
get acquainted with his family. 

All bottles of medicine, powders, or anything of 
this kind which you have, should be kept in the 
medicine closet. Not a bottle of peppermint on 
a shelf in the kitchen, a roll of bandage in one 
place, and the hot -water bag in another; put all of 
these things back in their cupboard as quickly 
as you have finished with them. Then when they 
are needed, you will know where they are and 
need not hunt all over the house for things which 
should be in one place. You would think a 
woman a very queer housekeeper, who is not 
able to find her teapot or who would say, "I did 
not iron this week because I could not find my 
flatirons." It is just as shiftless not to know 
where the liniment bottle and cough medicine 
are to be found. 

When you buy liquids at the drug store, ask the 



^^ THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

druggist to put them in bottles which are of the 
same size and shape. These look so much neater, 
set in a row, than bottles of all shapes and sizes. 
This applies to the medicines which are for general 
family use and not to some special medicine].put 
up for one member and which will be thrown away 
when its usefulness is past. When a bottle is 
empty, have it filled the first time you go to town, 
then in case of sickness or accident, you will not 
have to borrow of the neighbors or have someone 
wait while you go to the store. 

Unnecessary bottles and boxes will accumulate 
in a medicine closet as well as in other places. 
These should be discarded and the closet cleaned 
as regularly as you clean your pantry. 

It should be a rule of the house that the children 
must not go to this closet ; then no heart-breaking 
accidents will occur. 

If you must have poisons, they should be in 
bottles with a rough surface, should be labeled 
"poison," and kept always on the top shelf of 
the closet. The closet should hang on the wall 
opposite or near a window and where a light can 
shine into it at night. If this is not possible, have 
in the closet a candlestick with a candle always 
in it and a box of safety matches. These things 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 79 

must never be taken away from the closet, and the 
candle must always be lighted when looking for 
medicine at night. Keep the candlestick, always 
in the same place in the cupboard, so that there 
may be no delay in finding it, and that you may be 
able to **put your hand on it in the dark" but 

LET THAT BE THE ONLY THING THAT YOU DO PUT 
YOUR HAND ON IN THE DARK. 

If the attic and the vegetable cellar are unlighted, 
have another candle for these places. If the 
medicine closet candle is borrowed it will probably 
be left in the attic or the cellar and always on the 
night when you need it quickly. 

When giving liquid medicine from a bottle, 
always shake it, and keep the labeled side of the 
bottle on top when pouring the medicine. This 
prevents the medicine from running down the 
side and spoiling the label. Never have bottles, 
boxes, or packages in your medicine closet which 
are not plainly marked, and after a medicine has 
been discontinued, destroy what is left. If the 
bottle is a good one for your closet, wash and boil 
it, for it may be useful. 

Treat poisons as you would snakes and keep 
them away from the family as carefully. Never 
keep rat poison, fly poison, or anything which is 



8o THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

not a medicine in this closet, and do not have 
poison at all unless absolutely necessary. 

Do not give anything but the simplest remedies 
without the doctor's orders. It is not wise to 
take many drugs. Keep well by obeying the sim- 
ple laws of health; then 3^ou will need very Httle 
medicine. T\nien you give medicine, be sure you 
know exactly why you are giving it, how much 
to give, and how often. 

Pills which have been kept in the house a 
long time become hard and will not dissolve in the 
stomach and intestines. Some patients have been 
given pill after pill with no result; only to learn 
that the piUs were so old and hard that they were 
like stones. When you have your doubts as to 
the age and usefulness of a box of pills put one on 
the floor and stand on it. If it crushes under your 
foot it is safe to give them, if not they are beyond 
their usefulness. 

Your medicine closet shoiild contain: 

NO PATENT MEDICINES. 

A tin douche pan. 

A fountain syringe. 

A hot-water bag — (if you must be economical 
do not get the hot-water bag but use a Mason fruit 
jar)„ 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 8i 

A clinical thermometer — (Hicks is the best). 

Castor oil — (cathartic). 

Cascara sagrada — (cathartic) — (children take 
this easily and it is good for constant use). 

Rochelle salts — (cathartic). 

Seidlitz powders — (cathartic). 

Jamaica ginger. 

Essence of peppermint. 

Cathartic pills from the doctor (if you like) — 
given as he directs. 

Boracic acid. 

Sweet oil. 

Vaseline. 

Mustard. 

Lime water. 

Absorbent cotton. 

Old muslin. 

Scissors. 

Bandages and small safety pins. 

Oxide of zinc or some other good ointment. 

Castile soap. 

Adhesive plaster. 

Cold cream. 

Talcum powder. 

Bottle of alcohol. 

Brandy or sherry. 



82 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Smelling salts or camphor. 

Wooden toothpicks. 

A teaspoon and a small glass, or a measuring 
glass from the drug store. 

A tumbler. 

A quart bottle of sterilized water. 

A bottle of boracic acid solution. 

Dressing forceps. 

Small tray. 

Baking soda. 

One patent medicine, which is widely advertised 
to give health, youth, beauty, and almost anything 
else you would like, is being sold, I hear, in towns 
where "no license" is the law. If the person who 
is deprived of a saloon can get cheer and comfort 
from the alcohol which this patent medicine con- 
tains, it certainly would not be the thing you 
would wish to give your family. The soothing 
syrup which drugs the little babies, befuddling 
their little brains and ruining their little bodies, 
has been exposed many times and dwelt upon 
at length by doctors and sanitary workers. No 
woman in these days, who can read, would give 
her baby any of these ghastly mixtures. 

There are many remedies, tablets, pills, oint- 
ments, and liniments which are put up by reliable 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 83 

I 

chemists and which are given by doctors, but 
these drugs always have their contents plainly 
printed on the label or wrapper and do not claim 
to cure everything from a sore throat to an in- 
growing toe-nail. It is the quack cure-all patent 
medicine which you must shun and not the tablets 
and pills which are put up in this form for con- i 

venience. Sometimes these tablets contain three I 

or four healing drugs and are chocolate or sugar 
coated. They are much easier to swallow and 
much more convenient than the old-fashioned 
way of having several bottles or glasses and giving 
doses of some vile tasting concoction. The little 
patient does not dread the doctor in these days, 
for now we do not hold his nose and make him 
take his medicine whether he will or no, but we 
give him a pretty pink or yellow tablet and a 
glass of water with which to wash it down, and it is 
swallowed without struggling or tears. We feel it is 
much better for the child, and we know it is much 
easier for the mother. 

Buy a thermometer and take it to your doctor 
for instructions, or if you know a trained nurse, 
she will teach you how to use it. A tin douche 
pan is much better for family use than a china 
bedpan, for it can be used in place of the bedpan 1 



84 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

and for other things as well. When one has taken 
a powerftil cathartic, the bowels move very freely 
and with much gas, many times soiling the bed 
if a small pan is used. The large pan saves all 
this and is not as easily broken. 

A fountain syringe is a ver^T" necessary article 
of furniture and is much more important in a 
home than a gilded chair or lace curtains. Do 
not buy the chair, but have plain curtains, and do 
have the fountain syringe. You can buy one at 
the drug store which will hold from two to four 
quarts. This has several hard rubber tips and if 
well cared for will last a long time. I have even 
seen them in the five and ten-cent store. The 
little bag held about a quart. This cost ten cents. 
Ten cents more for the rubber tubing, ten cents 
for the fixture to control the flow, and ten cents, 
for each hard rubber tip, makes the cost of the 
fountain syringe fifty cents. I cannot answer 
for this rubber or the length of time it will last. 
Cheap rubber things are very apt to die young, 
and it pays in the end to buy the best material. 

A hot-water bag is a comforting thing to have 
and sometimes a necessity. If you can buy but 
one rubber article, let it be the syringe, and use 
a quart fruit jar in the place of the hot-water 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 85 

bag. Sometimes the rubber bags are a com- 
bination (hot-water bag and fountain syringe), 
but in this case if more water is needed in giving 
an enema or douche it would have to be opened 
and the process started all over again. Should 
you use the fruit jar, keep a new one with two or 
three can rubbers in your medicine closet. Noth- 
ing is quite so aggravating as having a leaky hot- 
water bag or bottle, for it causes much unnecessary 
work. Shake it well before taking it to your 
patient to be sure it does not leak. The little 
flannel or outing flannel cover which belongs on 
your hot-water bag should be kept hanging 
near it. 

Castor oil never used to be greeted with smiles 
unless the joke was on someone else and even 
then it took a very, hard hearted person to see the 
joke. No one minds it very much now, for we 
have left behind us the idea that because a thing 
was hard to do it must be good for us, especially 
if someone else were doing it. We exercise our 
muscles to strengthen our bodies and do many 
hard and unpleasant things which strengthen our 
will power but we will take castor oil in the new 
way. 

First you need a small glass. Pour a little 



86 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

sherry or lemon juice in the glass, being sure 
that the sides and edges of the glass are all touched 
by it. Next put the castor oil in a tablespoon and 
then carefully pour it from the spoon into the very 
middle of the little glass. Do not let one drop 
touch the edges or sides. Then put a little more 
sherry or lemon on top of the oil to be swallowed 
whole as if it were a raw oyster. A little more 
lemon or sherry or some coffee may be taken after- 
wards. Holding a piece of ice in the mouth before 
taking, chills the mouth and the sense of taste is 
not so acute. 

Boracic acid should be made into a solution 
for bathing tired or inflamed eyes and can be 
used as a gargle or mouth wash. This is used 
very often if there is a baby in the family. To 
make this solution, first boil a clean quart bottle 
or glass fruit jar; boil the cork or jar cover and 
rubber and a tin funnel, then in another clean 
basin, boil one quart of water. While still very 
hot, add two tablespoonfuls of boracic acid. 
Place your boiled bottle on the table and put 
the boiled funnel in the top. Then put a piece 
of sterilized absorbent cotton in the funnel. 
Wash your hands carefully before handling the 
cotton and do not touch anything before you touch 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 87 

the cotton. When the boracic acid is all dis- 
solved, pour it into the bottle through the cotton. 
Put the boiled cork in place, label "boracic acid 
solution," and put into your medicine closet. 

Sweet oil or olive oil is useful for dressing burns 
and for many other purposes. If you use olive 
oil for salad, do not depend upon the table oil for 
emergencies but always have a bottle for the 
medicine closet. 

When absorbent cotton comes from the drug 
store it is wrapped and sealed in strong blue 
paper. The cotton is sterilized in the factory, 
everything being absolutely clean. In the Johns- 
ton & Johnston factory at New Brunswick, New 
Jersey, the women who handle the supplies wear 
clean cotton dresses, and caps to cover their hair. 
They scrub their hands before handling the sup- 
plies. They are as clean as trained nurses and 
work as carefully as if in a hospital. The ban- 
dages, cotton, and other surgical supplies are 
sterilized and are carried by wonderful machinery 
and wrapped and rolled in a clean and wonderful 
manner. In a hospital operating room the cotton 
is made into convenient forms for the surgeons' 
use and must be handled; therefore it must be 
sterilized again and kept in sealed jars. The 



88 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

cotton~which you buy at the drug store is clean, 
and if the package is unbroken is sterile enough 
for ordinary use. If you handle it carefully it 
will stay clean. Buy only a small roll of cotton 
at a time. Boil a quart jar with the cover, 
break the outer covering of the cotton, and then, 
without touching the cotton with your hands but 
holding it by the paper, put it in the fruit jar and 
screw on the cover. Always keep this covered. 
When you need pieces for washing eyes or dressing 
a cut or burn, you can pull it out easily by means 
of the dressing forceps. The forceps must be 
absolutely clean when put into the jar. Take 
out only what you want to use. If you need to use 
large pieces for pads or anything which does not 
come in contact with a raw surface of the body, 
use the large roll. Always keep this well rolled 
and away from dust. Be as clean and as careful 
as possible when making any dressing. Surgeons 
when making dressings are very, very, very, 
particular about washing their hands before they 
begin and very, very, particular that they are 
clean afterward. 

Save all the old handkerchiefs, napkins, or 
pieces of old tablecloths, the skirts of worn-out 
nightdresses, old sheets, or any old piece of soft 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 89 

white linen or muslin. Cut off all buttons, hems, or 
thick places ; wash, boil, and rinse carefully. When 
they are dry, cut in convenient sizes, lay on a clean 
sheet on the table, and iron. Get from the grocery 
store a tin cracker or biscuit box, wash and boil 
it. In this put your pieces of old muslin and 
keep it tightly closed. Put this in the linen 
closet. Then in case of emergencies, burns, cuts, 
or any other accidents, you will have clean dress- 
ings ready to use at once. Save the longer pieces 
of muslin for bandages. Make a few long ones, 
one and one half or two inches wide, and others one 
inch wide. Roll these tightly, fasten each one 
with a small safety pin, and put these in a glass jar 
or even a jelly glass with a tight top. You can 
buy sterilized bandages at the drug store if needed. 
Jelly glasses are very nice for medicine-closet 
supplies as they have large open tops, do not take 
up much room, and are cheap. 

Castile soap is best for the baby, for washing 
cuts before dressing, for an enema, and for the 
hundred and one things which call for careful 
cleansing. 

Put some wooden toothpicks in a short large- 
necked bottle or jelly glass. They are to be used 
with a tiny bit of absorbent cotton, twisted on 



90 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the end, for removing dirt from the eye, for 
cleaning between the teeth, or cleaning a cut 
before bandaging. 

When you prepare the sterilized water, boil 
the fruit jar or bottle and the funnel, the same 
as for the boracic solution. Boil the water and 
pour through sterilized cotton. This water will 
be used for cleaning cuts or bums, for washing 
inflamed eyes, etc. 

If you wish to be very elegant indeed, you can 
have a little glass tray on which you will carry 
your medicine glass and bottle, spoon, dressing 
forceps, etc. A white enamel pie plate makes a 
splendid substitute for the glass tray. 

Put the baking soda in a large necked bottle or 
tightly covered jelly glass. 

Have a space large enough at the bottom of the 
closet to set the bedpan on end. Before the bed- 
pan is set away in the closet, after having been 
used, always scrub, scald and air it in the sun so 
that it will not only look clean but will smell 
clean. 

The hot-water bag can hang on the inside of the 
closet door. This must be emptied and drained 
of all the water. Then blow in the bag until 
it is fully distended, screw the cover on quickly, 



THE MEDICINE CLOSET 91 

keeping it full of air. This keeps the inside of 
the bag from sticking and will make it last much 
longer. 

The opening in the top of the rubber douche 
bag is much larger, and after draining and drying 
carefully, put a crumpled piece of tissue paper or 
a piece of gauze in it to keep it from sticking. 
Leave the end of the paper or gauze hanging out, 
so you may remove it easily and quickly. The 
rubber tip should be scrubbed with soap and 
water, washed and boiled and kept in a tin box. 
Rubber supplies are expensive but will last much 
longer if given careful treatment. Always roll 
rubber tubes around something to keep them lying 
in curves. Bending them over a sharp edge will 
crack the rubber. 



HOW TO GIVE AN ENEMA AND A DOUCHE 

The large and small intestines together are from 
twenty-five to thirty feet long — plenty of space 
for many unpleasant and painful things to happen. 
Keeping this canal, as it is called, in good working 
order is absolutely necessary for health. 

The food is digested in the small intestines, and 
what is left over is only that part of the food 
which is not digested. This should not be allowed 
to stay in the large intestines and if not carried off 
naturally, a cathartic or enema should be used. 
When your patient is ill in bed, she gets no exer- 
cise and will probably need an enema. 

If a cathartic is given at night and does not 
cause an action of the bowels by the afternoon 
of the next day, an enema should be given; also 
if the patient is nauseated when taking a cathartic. 
The water will enter the bowel easier if the patient 
lies on her left side, but if she is not accustomed to 
taking an enema, it would be better to have her 
lie on her back, her knees drawn up to relax the 

92 



ENEMAS AND DOUCHES 93 

muscles of her abdomen, and the douche pan in 
place. The intestine empties itself by a process 
called peristalsis, which is a wave-like or worm- 
like motion, extending along the length of the 
bowel. When the bowel is obstinate about 
performing its duties, it must be stimulated to 
act, by giving an enema, which is an injection 
into the rectum, of water containing soap, glycerine, 
or turpentine. The doctor sometimes prescribes 
other ingredients. 

Some people have great trouble in retaining the 
water of the enema and cannot endure the un- 
pleasant feeling. If the flow of water is stopped 
the instant it becomes painful, your patient will 
not dread the operation. The flow can be stopped 
by the little attachment on the rubber tube, or 
by folding the tube on itself and holding it. Do 
not remove the tip from the rectum, as the pain 
stops very quickly. After waiting a few seconds, 
more water can be given. 

TO GIVE AN ENEMA 

Cover the patient with a blanket and put a 
rubber sheet under her. Put the bedpan on a 
chair, the foot of the bed, or where you can easily 



94 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

reach it. Lay a folded towel or pad over that 
part of the bedpan where her back will rest. 
Put the warm soapsuds in the rubber bag and 
hang it two or three feet higher than the patient. 
Place the bedpan under the patient and rub vase- 
line or oil on the hard rubber tip. Let a little 
water run through the tube to expel the air. Then 
gently insert the tube in the rectum. 

If the bowels have not moved recently, the 
rectum may be full of hard fecal matter which will 
not respond to the enema or may not let the water 
enter the bowel. If this is the case you will have 
to remove this hard mass with a warm oil enema 
or with your finger. If you use oil, you will need 
a Davidson syringe or a bulb syringe, such as is 
used for babies. Heat the oil until it feels warm 
but not hot, put it in the bulb syringe and inject 
slowly into the rectum. This may remove the 
mass without further trouble. If not, you must 
do it with your finger. If you have a rubber cot, 
put that on your first finger. If not, trim your 
nail and file carefully, then press the nail into 
a cake of soap. This will keep it from hurting 
the lining of the intestine and will not let the fecal 
matter under the nail. Use oil or vaseline on your 
finger. This must be done very gently and when 



ENEMAS AND DOUCHES 95 

the patient is rested, give a warm soap-and-water 
enema. 

Do not hurry the enema. Give the water 
time to soften the hard mass in the intestine. It 
may be done successfully in ten minutes and it 
may take twenty. Do not be frightened if, after 
giving your patient two quarts of soapy water, 
she retains it all. Her system needed the water 
and so absorbed it. Just give another enema. 
The patient must be bathed and dried carefully 
after the enema. Do not give an enema until 
an hour after a meal. It might cause nausea 
or a sickness of the stomach. 

SOAPSUDS ENEMA 

A grown person will take from one to two quarts 
of water. A child about half that quantity. 
Use Ivory or castile soap. Stir the cake of soap 
in the water until it looks a little milky. A 
quantity of froth is not wanted and must be 
removed. Air must not be injected in the rectum 
with the water. 

GLYCERINE ENEMA 

If the bowels are obstinate about moving and 
do not respond to the soap-and-water enema, 



96 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

give a small enema composed of a pint of wann 
water and two or three tablespoonfuls of glycerine. 

TURPENTINE ENEMA 

When a patient is suffering from gas pains, a 
turpentine enema is often given. Prepare warm 
soapy water, as for a soap-and-water enema, 
and add from two to four tablespoonfuls of 
turpentine. Shake well, as the turpentine must 
be thoroughly mixed with the soapy water. 
This will be found helpful in expelling gas after 
an operation or at any time when sharp, tearing, 
gas pains are giving trouble. 

HOW TO GIVE A DOUCHE 

When people outside of hospitals speak of 
douches, they usually mean a vaginal douche. 
There are many kinds of douches. A douche 
means a stream of water used to cleanse or heal 
any part of the body. 

Douches are used for inflamed eyes, for the 
nose, throat, or ears. These are usually ordered 
by the doctor or given by him. The vaginal 
douche is the one usually given by the home 
nurse. When you give a vaginal douche, the 



ENEMAS AND DOUCHES 97 

doctor will tell you how hot to give it, what and 
how much medication to use, and the quantity 
of water. The douche nozzle must not only be 
clean but must be boiled from three to five minutes. 
Great care must always be exercised in giving a 
douche, especially if given after the birth of a 
baby. 

Have the patient lie on her back with her 
knees drawn up and a folded towel or pad over that 
part of the bedpan on which she rests. If the 
patient is uncomfortable with the pan under 
her, try using a small pillow under the small of her 
back, close to the pan, removing the pillow from 
under her head, as the hips should be higher than 
the head. The rubber bag containing the water 
should not hang more than two feet above the pa- 
tient, in order that it may not run with too much 
force or too quickly. Expel the air from the 
rubber tube, by letting the water run through 
the tube the same as in giving an enema. If the 
patient has a discharge from the vagina, pour 
warm water over her, and clean carefully with a 
piece of absorbent cotton, which afterward must 
be burned. After the douche, dry the patient, 
and after cleaning the douche nozzle and bedpan^ 
scrub your own hands. 



POULTICES, APPLICATIONS TO RELIEVE 
PAIN, OINTMENTS AND LINIMENTS 

Many times a hot application will relieve pain. 
This may be applied in many different ways: a 
hot-water bag, bottles or jars of hot water, hot 
flatirons, bricks, or bags of hot sand or salt. 
These are all comforting and relieve the pain of 
a stiff neck, backache, rheumatism, and neuritis. 
This is dry heat. If moist heat is desired, a 
fomentation or stupe, as it is called, or a poultice 
is used. In case one has a boil or sore finger 
caused by a sliver, thorn, or infection, a poultice 
is sometimes used. 

BREAD POULTICE 

A very simple and easily made poultice is one 

of bread and water, hot water made thick with 

bread crumbs. This is a very old-fashioned 

poultice and almost all grown-ups can remember 

wearing one at some time during their early school 

days. Only in those days they were made of 

bread and milk, not bread and water. The milk 

98 



POULTICES AND LINIMENTS 99 

is liable to sour and the water does just as well. 
This poultice can be put warm and soft directly 
on the finger which contains the sliver or thorn, 
covered with a soft cloth and kept warm. This 
should be renewed often, then the pus forming 
around the thorn will work to the surface, bringing 
the thorn with it. After this is accomplished, the 
sore place should be carefully cleansed, dressed 
with a piece of muslin from the tin box, and kept 
protected and clean until healed. 

Try all hot applications on your arm or cheek 
before putting them on your patient. If they do 
not burn you, they will not burn her, even if she 
does object. They must be applied hot, but not 
enough to burn. 

FLAXSEED POULTICE 

You will need a piece of muslin for a foundation 
for your poultice. Cut a piece, four inches larger 
each way than the surface you wish to cover 
with the poultice. Warm a large thick plate in 
the oven or near the fire. Have water boiling 
in a saucepan and sprinkle in the flaxseed with 
one hand, while you stir with the other, in the 
same way you make corn-meal mush. Stir with a 
knife. When the mixture is like a thick paste. 



100 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

remove from the fire, lay the musHn foundation 
on the hot plate and spread the poultice to within 
one inch of the edge of the cloth. Cover this 
with a piece of gauze, mosquito netting, or old 
lace curtain, and fold the edges of the muslin over 
on the poultice. This makes a little muslin frame 
around it and keeps the sticky mass from running 
off. Cover the poultice with another hot plate 
or warm cloth and take to the patient. Always 
make a new poultice before removing the old one. 
A poultice must not get cold on the patient. 
In about half an hour after you apply the first 
poultice, begin making the second. The doctor 
will tell you how long to keep them on. If he 
says keep the patient poulticed for two hours, 
that does not mean one poultice for two hours 
but several poultices, keeping the skin warm and 
moist. Cover the poultice with a rubber cloth 
or flannel to retain the heat. When you have 
finished poulticing, dry the skin and cover it with 
warm flannel, so it may not become chilled. 

MUSTARD POULTICE 

First wash the skin where the poultice is to be 
applied. Anoint with oil or vaseline and cover 
with a clean cloth. 



POULTICES AND LINIMENTS loi 

. Mix together two teaspoonfuls of mustard and 
four teaspoonfuls of flour with enough warm 
water to make it spread nicely. Spread on a 
cloth, cover with gauze, cheesecloth or a piece of 
old handkerchief, the same as in making the flax- 
seed poultice. Do not use hot water, as that 
destroys the heating properties of the mustard. 
The oil on the skin prevents blistering quickly 
and the poultice can be borne much longer. 
Look at the skin often to see that it does not blister. 

BRAN POULTICE 

Sew the bran in a muslin bag. This can be 
used dry or wet. If dry, heat it in the oven. If 
wet, pour boiling water over it. To do this, lay 
a towel over a basin or bowl, then put the bag of 
bran in the basin on the towel. Pour the water 
over this, and by twisting the ends of the towel 
you can wring the poultice without burning your 
hands. Apply in the same manner as a flaxseed 
poultice. Hop or slippery-elm poultices are made 
in the same way. 

Bags of hot salt are often used. These are made 
of heavy muslin and filled only one third or one half 
full of salt. Heat them in the oven. It is best to 
have two bags, heating one while the other is in use. 



102 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Laudanum is often added to a bread or flax- 
seed poultice if the patient is in pain. 

Hot fomentations or stupes, as they are called 
in the hospital, are cloths wrung out of hot water 
and applied to the body. Sometimes a medicine 
is added to the hot water or put directly on the 
skin, before the hot, wet cloths are applied. 

To wring the cloths without burning the hands, 
lay a strong towel over a basin, then on that put 
the cloth which you wish to use for your stupe. 
(A piece of flannel is best.) Pour over this the 
hot water, and by twisting the ends of the towel 
you will be able to wring it quite dry without 
burning your hands. If this must be done many 
times, it will save time and trouble if you sew 
hems, a couple of inches wide, in the ends of the 
towel, and through these hems run two sticks, then 
by turning the sticks in opposite directions, you 
can wring the stupe very quickly. Carry it to 
your patient in the cloth in which it is wrung. 
If you have a piece of bed ticking of any strong 
cloth it will do as well as the towel. 

If your patient must have stupes on her back, 
let her lie on her face with a pillow under her 
stomach and chest. She will be more comfortable 
with the pillow. If she must have the stupes on 




Many Times the Bed must be Raised at the Foot 

[Page 12: 




When the Patient must have Stupes on Back or Abdomen 

Use Two Blankets to Avoid Uncovering the Chest 

and Shoulders when Applying Stupes 



POULTICES AND LINIMENTS 103 

her abdomen, place a large pillow, or two small 
ones, under her knees. Use two blankets to cover 
your patient, one large one and one small one. 
Put the large one over her feet with the top edge 
reaching to her abdomen or as high on her back 
as you apply the stupes. Place the small one 
over her shoulders and let it come down over the 
edge of the first one. Then when you apply the 
stupes, lay back the blankets where they come 
together. This will save uncovering the chest and 
shoulders of your patient. Cover the stupes with 
oiled muslin, rubber cloth or flannel, to retain 
the heat. When you have finished giving the 
stupes, dry the skin carefully and cover with a 
warm dry cloth. 

To make a turpentine stupe for a grown person, 
mix together one teaspoonful of turpentine and 
two of sweet or olive oil. For a child, one tea- 
spoon of turpentine and eight teaspoons of oil. 
Mix carefully, and with a piece of absorbent cotton 
anoint the skin where the stupe is to be placed. 
Then wring the folded flannel cloth as directed, 
give it a little shake when you take it from the 
stupe water to let air in between the folds, and 
apply as hot as you can hold it on your own 
cheek. Have two pieces of flannel for stupes and 



104 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

change every five minutes, during the time ordered 
for the hot fomentation. Put a hot cloth in place 
when you remove the cool one. Anoint with oil 
and turpentine every third time you apply the 
hot cloth. Stir well each time that the turpentine 
may be well mixed with the oil. 

To use a liniment, wash the skin with hot water 
and soap, dry, and rub in the liniment with the 
hand, until it is absorbed by the skin. Place 
the palm of your hand (or, as the Masseuse says, 
the heel of your hand) on the painful spot, and 
without lifting it move gently with a circular 
motion. This massages the deep muscles and 
helps lame backs, stiff necks, and lame legs. Al- 
ways wash the hands carefully, after using lini- 
ments, as they sometimes contain poisons. 

Ointments are spread on a piece of clean muslin 
and applied to the sore place, or are rubbed into the 
skin in the same way as the liniment. 

The doctor sometimes orders cold applications 
to relieve pain or congestion. The easiest way is 
to use cloths wrung from ice water or that have 
lain on the ice. Alcohol added to the ice water 
makes it seem colder. This needs the entire 
attention of one person, as the cloth becomes 
warm quickly and must be changed at very fre- 



POULTICES AND LINIMENTS 105 

quent intervals. Wring carefully and place a 
rubber cloth covered with a sheet or towel under 
that part of the body where they are applied. Ice 
caps are used in hospitals and are most convenient 
and easy to use if they can be obtained. If you 
use an ice cap, fill it only half full of pieces of 
ice as large as an English walnut. Hold your 
hand tightly around the top of the bag to expel the 
air, then screw on the top. Cover with a piece of 
gauze or an old handkerchief. If the cap is only 
half full, it will fit nicely over the head, or place on 
the body where it is needed. 

When you have finished using the cap, wash it, 
dry carefully, and put a handful of crushed tissue 
paper or piece of gauze or muslin inside so the 
sides cannot stick together and spoil the bag. 

If cold compresses are needed for an eye, cut 
several pieces of absorbent cotton just large enough 
to cover the eye, about the size and shape of a 
glass in eyeglasses. Lay these on a piece of ice 
and change frequently. If there is a discharge 
from the eye, do not use the same piece twice. 
The ice will keep much better if you turn a sieve 
upside down in a basin and lay the piece of ice on 
the sieve. In this way the ice cannot touch the 
water and will not melt as quickly. 



CHILDREN 

Begin at the very beginning with children 
and teach them that good health will depend in a 
great measure upon themselves. Teach them to 
clean their teeth, to be watchful and regular with 
their bowels, to wash their hands before eating 
and after they come home from school, and to 
bathe regularly. These things can be made habits 
and, if managed in the right way, will not make 
fussy children. They should be done regularly and 
without comment, just as the child gets up each 
morning and eats three meals a day. 

If your child is sick or not strong, do not talk 

about it before him. Do not discuss his symptoms 

or medicine, for this will make him self-conscious 

and concerned about himself. It is not good for 

him and makes him anything but attractive. A 

grown-up person who is always dwelling upon his 

symptoms and pills is anything but good company, 

and a child who does this is often disliked, when 

really it is all the fault of the parents. 

Teach the children not to put their hands on 
1 06 



CHILDREN 107 

railings, or banisters in public places, and to keep 
their gloves and hands away from their faces. 
One sees things in the cars or on the street that 
makes one wonder whether some mothers value 
their children at all. In these days, when the 
newspapers are full of warnings, one would hardly 
believe that a mother could sit calm and un- 
concerned and allow her young son, of two and one 
half or three years, to clean the car windov/ with 
his tongue or to put his fingers in his mouth and 
draw pictures on the window, returning his finger 
to his mouth every few seconds to wet it, in order 
that it may make better marks. 

One day I saw in the Battery Park aquarium a 
long line of very dirty people passing in front of 
the fish tanks. All of these people kept their 
hands carefully on the rail which separated them 
from the tanks, leaving their own germs behind 
and collecting those of their predecessors. Little 
foreign children are much like American young- 
sters. They also kept their hands on the rail, 
stopping occasionally to put their mouths on it. 
This sounds revolting to you, and yet if you take 
your children to see the fishes, which you should 
do if possible, they will immediately put their 
hands on this same rail. 



io8 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

It is only a habit, this handling of everything. 
Teach children that their eyes are not in their 
fingers. Have you never seen a woman on a 
shopping tour stop and handle everything laid 
out for inspection, whether she had any idea of 
buying it or not? Only old or feeble people 
should put their hands on banisters or railings in 
public places. People who are too young to walk 
alone should have a guiding and protecting 
hand in public. These citizens of tender years 
are the ones who not only handle but taste in- 
discriminately. Buy a magnifying glass and 
show the dirt on the legs of the fly and on other 
things ; then your warnings will not seem like fairy 
tales. 

Buy a thermometer and take it to your doctor 
for instruction, or if you know a trained nurse 
she will teach you how to use it. Very often 
the first sign that something is wrong with one of 
the children, will be a rise in temperature. If he 
complains of a headache, has flushed cheeks and 
no appetite, you may be sure he has "caught 
something," or, as our grandmothers used to say 
in accusing tones, ''has been eating something." 
Take his temperature. If it is near green apple 
time, make searching inquiries, or if earlier in the 



CHILDREN 109 

spring and there have been a few very warm 
days and you live near a lake or a river, feel of 
his hair and ask him if the water is warm. He 
may have been tempted to take an early plunge 
and in consequence may have tonsilitis. Look 
at his chest, stomach, or neck to see if he has a 
rash. Ask him all about his trouble, where he has 
pain, and if it is a dull or a sharp pain. Then 
telephone the doctor and you will be able to 
answer his questions in an intelligent manner. A 
rise of temperature is not as serious in a child 
as in a grown person. It may mean indigestion, 
and if so, a dose of castor oil will make him a new 
man. 

In the hospitals the temperature of a child is 
taken in the rectum. It is not always safe to 
put a thermometer in the mouth of a small child, 
for if he struggles or bites, he may break the 
thermometer, and broken glass is a serious thing. 
To avoid accidents of this kind and to secure a 
more accurate temperature, the rectal temperatures 
are taken. Put a little oil or vaseline on the 
thermometer and insert very gently. If the 
child is not sick in bed, the best position is the one 
enforced upon us in our early youth when under- 
going an old-fashioned spanking. 



no THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

If your child seems stupid, does not get on well 
in school, and sits with his mouth open, do not feel 
that he is headed toward an idiot asylum. At the 
very first opportunity, head him toward the doctor. 
He probably has adenoids, and if these are re- 
moved he may be the smartest member of the 
family. 

Many children have harsh and cruel things said 
to them because of seeming stupidity, when the 
parents are the ones who are stupid. No normal 
child sits or sleeps with his mouth open, and if your 
child does this, it is your duty to find out why he 
does it and have the cause removed. There may 
be other things besides adenoids which are troub- 
ling him. His hearing may be defective or he may 
need glasses. A mother once told me about her 
son, whose seeming denseness and stupidity during 
his early years was a constant mortification to 
her. When sent on errands to places where he 
had been with her only the day before, he would 
come home without being able to find the place, 
and he did many other foolish things which seemed 
absolutely without excuse. One day she dis- 
covered that he was very nearsighted. He was 
at once taken to an oculist, and when he returned 
wearing glasses, he said: *'Why, mother, there 



CHILDREN III 

is another side to the street. I never knew that 
before." The mother told me that the sharp 
things she had said to him for his seeming inat- 
tentiveness had been hurting her ever since. 

If your child wets the bed, do not punish him, 
but take him to the doctor. If he hates his woolen 
underwear, do not make him wear it. Give him 
cotton underclothes and a sweater to wear under 
his overcoat if he needs it. Wool is very irritating 
to some skins, and I have known children to endure 
torture from fall until late spring because their 
mothers were superstitious about woolen under- 
clothes. Any one who has been in a continual 
itch all the winters of his youth, will not forget it, 
and will see that his own children are not tortured 
in the same way. In a book which was published 
no farther back than 191 1, people are gravely 
advised to use white flannel bandages for one 
condition and red flannel for something else. 
Such advice is on a par with the recommendations 
and treatment of the rag priestess, who tells you 
your disease and what to do for it, by holding 
in her hands a bandage which you have worn over- 
night. 

The children's clothing must hang from the 
shoulders, using elastics, which fasten on an 



112 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

underwaist, to hold the stocldngs. Do not use 
garters around the leg, and if the baby's sleeves are 
too long, turn them back at the wrist. Do not 
put tight rubber bands around her arms. This 
interferes with the circulation. 

It is not considered necessary in these days for 
children to have contagious diseases. I remember 
hearing a mother say: ''AH the children in the 
neighborhood are having mumps. As it is spring 
and warm weather is coming on, I think I will see 
that my small daughter is exposed, and that will 
be one more thing over with. This is the best 
time of the year for children to have mumps.'* 

There is no good time of year for children to 
have mumps, measles, or whooping cough. The 
mothers are careful to avoid exposure to diphtheria 
and scarlet fever, and children are warned about 
these diseases, but many ignorant mothers beHeve 
that measles, whooping cough, mumps, and chicken 
pox are necessary evils and calmly allow their 
children to be exposed. These diseases weaken 
the child, and each sickness of this kind puts him 
in a condition to more easily contract something 
else. Why use up his vitality in this way? It is 
better to take every precaution and protect your 
child, thus helping to stamp out these diseases. 



CHILDREN 113 

Teach the children very early in life that con- 
stipation is more deadly than the dragon in the 
fairy-tale book. Young children must be watched 
and taught the importance of regular habits. 
When they become feverish or irritable, an in- 
vestigation will probably show that the bowels 
are not in good condition. If the bowels do not 
move well every day, feed your child bran bread, 
graham bread or graham muffins, orange juice, 
figs, or prunes for breakfast. If this does not 
correct the trouble, tell your doctor and he will 
prescribe a remedy. This is most important, for 
other kinds of troubles, as well as fretfulness and 
stupidity, arise from neglected constipation. No 
one can be cheerful, bright, even tempered, or 
well, if he is absorbing poisons. The bowel 
movements may be fairly regular but at the same 
time contain indigested food. It is best to speak 
to the doctor about this. 

When giving an enema to a child, try to get 
him to submit without using force. It uses up 
too much energy and tires both mother and 
child. Teach your children to have a loving 
confidence in what you do for them. Sympathize 
with the dread and fright which unusual things of 
this kind always produce. Do not say **This is 



114 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

for your own good, " an expression which has been 
dear to the hearts of many parents, and remem- 
bered with resentment by their children. They 
will be able to understand if you explain to them 
that an enema is preferable to being sick, taking 
castor oil, and staying in bed. Children have much 
more commonsense than is generally believed by 
their elders and will use it if given half a chance. 

When children walk before their bones are 
strong enough to bear their weight, or if their 
bodies are not properly nourished, they will 
have bowlegs. This condition is also often caused 
by too large a diaper. A remedy for bowlegs, 
which is more pleasant than splints on the little 
legs, is an old-fashioned velocipede or tricycle. 
Get one a little too large for the child; then when 
he rides he will stretch his legs in order to reach 
the pedals. This constant stretching of the legs 
will help to straighten them. He will be like the 
grown-up who owns an automobile and who is 
not able to walk around the corner if the car is 
handy. He will want to ride all the time. This 
will keep his weight off his legs and you will see 
an improvement in a short time. Get the tricycle 
as soon as he is able to ride and while his little 
bones are soft and easily straightened. 



CHILDREN 115 

When your young daughter has had the measles 
and is convalescing but still in bed and of course 
quarantined, the time will pass very slowly. 
Put her in a room in which the windows look on the 
street so that she may have her bed by the closed 
window. You can buy for her, at the five- and 
ten-cent store, a pair of dark glasses and she will 
love to wear them. Ask the doctor's advice, 
however, before doing this. If she is near the 
window, she can wave her hands at her friends. 
Some of them will pass by on the other side of the 
street, and speak in whispers about the card which 
says ''Measles." Others, very brave, will walk 
on your side, while very foolhardy ones will 
dance on your grass and shout, "Who's afraid 
of measles!" All this will be very entertaining 
during her convalescence, when she will be hardest 
to care for. Put a little jacket on her, which 
can be washed or burned when she is well, give 
her a bed table, made from a box, which can also 
be burned, a bottle of library paste and some blunt 
scissors, a fashion magazine, a seed catalogue, and 
strips of cardboard. With these can be made 
a beautiful game. Cut the strips of cardboard 
an inch wide and three to five inches long, fold at 
right angles, so that one end will stand. Then 



ii6 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

cut stylish ladies, trees, flowers, etc., and paste 
each one to a cardboard base, the upright end 
of the cardboard on the back of the lady. This 
will make her stand nicely. With a little sug- 
gestion, your young daughter can be induced to 
make a garden with ladies having a garden party; 
or a scrapbook can be called a child's home, each 
leaf to be a room furnished with chairs, tables, 
etc., cut from the advertising pages of old maga- 
zines. Boys usually like making forests, with 
animals or a zoo, or, like Robert Louis Stevenson, 
sail little paper ships across the counterpane sea, 
with cargoes from foreign lands. Children can be led 
to originate many delightful stories and games. 
Their heads are usually full of these and it takes 
only the key of sympathetic understanding to un- 
lock their hearts and induce them to play fairy 
stories. Every house has old magazines full of pic- 
tures which can be utilized in this way, and friends 
will be more than glad to contribute material for 
the entertainment of your small patient. Clothes- 
pins with faces marked on them make nice 
dollies and stand very well if given stiff paper 
skirts. These things can be burned when they 
have served their usefulness, thereby destroying 
all fear of contagion. By giving one thing at a 



CHILDREN 117 

time and a different one each day, the child will 
not grow tired of these simple toys. 

When your young son announces that he is tired 
of milk and just can't drink another drop, answer 
him: "All right, son, we will have something else. 
I will be the man at the soda fountain and you 
a customer. Good morning, sir, what flavor." 
He will grin and say, ''Pineapple." Bring in his 
glass of milk with a drop of vanilla or some other 
flavoring in it, and a strip of macaroni. Let him 
drink the milk through the macaroni in place of a 
^traw. Ask him if the flavor is good and what 
Iv'nd he will take next time. This is a game that is 
always a success and is much easier and pleasanter 
than the old-fashioned method of holding his 
nose and making him swallow. Quite a thick 
gruel can be taken through the macaroni. 

Play with your sick child. When his feet are 
paddling in the bath pan, they may as well be 
in the sea, in his mind. Ask him if he can feel 
the sand and it makes things very interesting if a 
crab catches a toe now and then. Bread and 
milk is delightful if each mouthful is a city and 
something of interest is told about the city while it 
is being eaten. Take a bread-and-milk journey 
with your son. The first mouthful can be Boston. 



ii8 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Give him a spoonful and say: "Here we are at 
Boston. ' Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.'" If he 
wishes to stay in Boston and hear more of Paul 
Revere, you can keep on feeding him. His mouth 
will open unconsciously. In this way the neces- 
sary amount of nourishment can be given without 
protest and wasted energy. 

A delightful and everlasting entertainment 
can be furnished with very little trouble and no 
expense. Fasten the branch of a bush or tree 
outside the window where the birds can come to 
eat. Make holes in pieces of bread or crackers 
and slide them over the twigs. Use a shallow box 
or basket fastened to the edge of the fire escape, 
if you live in the city and have no branches. The 
birds will soon become very tame, and even older 
people are very much entertained by this simple 
device. 

A five-cent paper of flower seeds, or a handful 
of beans, will furnish another fascinating game. 
The breakfast egg can be carefully cut and the 
shell saved. Place a piece of cotton on a plate or 
little tray, thick enough to keep the shell from 
tipping. Put a little soft earth in a box, spread a 
large paper over son's lap, and give him a tin 



CHILDREN 119 

teaspoon. He can fill the egg-shell flowerpots 
and plant a bean or seed in each one. These he 
can water each day with a teaspoon. Beans are 
hardy enough to endure being dug up, to see if 
they are growing, and will also bear up under 
much watering. 

In February or March bring in branches from 
the lilac, cherry, or plum trees. Put them in a 
vase of lukewarm water and stand in the window. 
They send out leaves and blossoms very quickly 
and are entertaining when one must stay in bed, 
or even in the house. These may also give the 
children a taste for the study of birds and plants. 
As the child grows stronger the tiny plants in the 
egg shells can be transplanted to a larger box or 
set out in the garden. He will be interested in 
caring for them and this will be good for both 
his body and soul. 



SPECIAL CASES AND CONTAGIOUS 
DISEASES 

COLD 

During an epidemic of smallpox a nervous 
lady telephoned her doctor and said, "Doctor, 
we have all been vaccinated, what else shall we 
do to protect ourselves?" The doctor answered, 
"Keep your bowels open and trust in the Lord." 

This is the best of advice for all kinds of diseases, 
from smallpox to the every- day cold. Germs 
will find no more encouragement in a clean body 
than rats and mice will find in a clean house. If 
you feel a cold or sore throat coming on, take a 
hot bath, and a hot lemonade with a "stick" in 
it, if you are not a prohibitionist. If you are, 
take the plain lemonade and have it hot. Take a 
cathartic, not a little dose but enough to clean 
house thoroughly. It is a wise thing to get from 
your doctor tablets or pills, to be taken at the 
beginning of a cold. A person having a cold 
should not sleep with another person, and even 

120 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 121 

if fond of his family, should restrain himself from 
kissing them and should sleep with the windows 
open. If there is soreness in the throat or chest, 
rub in an ointment made of lard and turpentine. 
To make this ointment you will need a large plate, 
a thin knife, one teaspoonful of turpentine, and 
eight teaspoonfuls of lard. Work the lard over 
and over on the plate until soft like ointment, using 
the thin knife. Drop the turpentine on the lard, 
a drop or two at a time, and mix thoroughly. 
Rub this into the chest and neck, and cover with a 
warm flannel. Take a hot mustard foot bath if 
you cannot have the hot tub bath. Put a half 
teaspoonful of salt in a glass of warm water and 
gently snuff it up the nose. This removes the 
uncomfortable feeling, cleans out the nose, and is 
healing. Gargle with hot water and salt and do not 
forget the cathartic. 

PAIN IN THE^ BACK 

If you have a pain in your back, do not conclude 
at once that you have diseased kidneys. There 
must be something particularly fascinating about 
a diseased kidney, for it is one of the things which 
is selected by many people and lovingly kept for 



122 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

their own. The horribly fascinating portraits 
of writhing victims of this disease are displayed in 
the daily papers. The patent medicine advertise- 
ments scream at you and dwell at length and 
most convincingly on the symptoms and their 
ability to cure, but most of us know that patent 
medicines cure nothing. At least if we do not 
know it, it is our own fault. That there are 
none so deaf as those who won't hear, is very true 
in the case of people who are spending their 
money for a bottle wearing a fetching label, and 
containing a mixture of water with a little alcohol 
(sometimes much alcohol), a cathartic, and maybe 
a little strychnine, all of which he could get from 
his doctor or druggist for one tenth of the cost. 

The pain in your back may be lumbago. If you 
will rest and have someone stir up a mustard 
plaster, put hot stupes over the lame place, or a 
few strips of adhesive plaster to keep the sore 
muscles from pulling when you move, your back 
will be as good as new and your money still in 
your pocket. 

Backache may be caused by chronic constipation 
or it may be caused by a strain or a cold. Try a 
cathartic and hot applications. If this does not 
cure you send for the doctor, but do not take 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 123 

patent medicine. Women and girls often have 
backaches, but they must be treated by the 
family doctor. 

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 

When a patient is quarantined, no one but the 
doctor and the nurse should be allowed in the 
sick room. Every precaution must be taken to 
guard the rest of the family. The dishes and the 
clothing which are used for the patient must be 
washed by themselves. Keep the dishes in the 
patient's room, so that no one else will get them. 
When the patient is well, the dishes can be boiled 
for fifteen minutes and used again. Everything 
which is carried from the sick room should be 
disinfected. The patient should be kept very 
clean with baths each day, unless the doctor 
orders otherwise. In case of scarlet fever or any 
disease where the skin peels, the patient's skin 
should be oiled. This keeps the tiny particles 
of skin from floating about in the air and infecting 
others. The nurse should wear cotton dresses 
which can be washed and boiled, should take a 
walk in the fresh air each day if possible, and 
should always wash her hands, using a nail brush. 



124 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

after doing any service for her patient. Do not 
put your hands on your face; do not kiss the 
patient or put your face near his face. Clean 
the floor of the sick room with damp cloths and 
dust with a damp duster, then wash and boil 
these cloths. Your doctor will advise about 
disinfectant and about fimiigation of the room 
when the patient is well. The bedpan must be 
treated liberally with disinfectant, using as much 
again disinfectant as you have urine or stool in the 
bedpan. This must be done before the bedpan is 
emptied in the sewer or place prepared for it. 
All toys or books which have been used by the 
patient should be burned and the room thoroughly 
cleaned. 

If you have time to prepare one, the old fash- 
ioned straw mattress will do, if your patient is a 
child, for he can be lifted from the bed, while 
you stir and make smooth the straw. This with 
an old comfortable over the mattress will make 
a comfortable bed and all can be burned when 
the child is well. A wood or iron bed could be 
scrubbed in a strong solution of carbolic and then 
painted. Many people cannot afford to bum 
their furniture. Be careful not to spatter yoiu* 
hands or face, as the carbolic will bum. There 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 125 

need be but one chair in the room. Clean boxes 
can be used for tables, if covered with towels. 
Another box with shelves could be used for a 
cupboard in which to keep the dishes and play- 
things. Toys, books, and boxes must all go on 
the same bonfire. 

If you are not able to wash the sheets, pillow- 
cases, nightgowns, and towels as quickly as they 
are soiled, they should be put in a tub of cold 
water, or water and disinfectant, until you can 
attend to them. This keeps the dust from flying 
about and lessens the danger to other members 
of the family. Children should not be allowed 
to play with cats or dogs when recovering from 
contagious diseases. Scarlet fever can be carried 
to an entire neighborhood by one kitten. 

TYPHOID FEVER 

When a person has typhoid fever, his intestines 
are full of ulcers or sores. The nurse will readily 
see that her patient must not sit up in bed, must 
not move quickly, or, if very ill, must not move 
himself at all. He must not get out of bed for 
any cause whatsoever; whether he dislikes the 
bedpan or not, he must use it. The walls of the 



126 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

intestines are thin and anyone can easily under- 
stand that these thin walls, which are covered 
with sores, are more than likely to break through 
or become perforated, if given a quick strain, or 
IF SOLID FOOD IS GIVEN. A crumb or little 
hard mass of food lodging in a sore may be the 
last straw which perforates the thin wall of the 
intestines. If this happens, it means death. A 
liquid diet is absolutely necessary and should be 
given through a drinking cup, a glass tube, or a 
straw. If the patient must have his head lifted 
to swallow, the nurse must lift it for him. There 
must be no company and no more of the family 
than are needed to care for him. Keep his drink- 
ing glasses, cups, plates, etc., separate from those 
used by the family. These must be washed by 
themselves with a pan, towels, and dishcloth kept 
for that purpose. All clothing used for the patient, 
towels, and bedclothing must be disinfected, 
washed, and dried in the sun. 

The patient's mouth will need great care. The 
tiny mops made with toothpicks and a bit of 
absorbent cotton will clean between the teeth. 
A piece of absorbent cotton wound on the finger 
will clean the mouth and tongue. The nurse 
must be very gentle, as the gums bleed easily. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 127 

Boracic acid solution can be used as a mouth wash 
unless the doctor has something which he prefers. 

The patient must have warm cleansing baths, 
but must be moved as little as possible. With 
practice or a little forethought, you can bathe and 
dry his back and put a clean sheet in place by 
turning him once. His back can be bathed when 
the sheet must be changed. Directions for the 
cooling bath, which he will need if his temperature 
is high, will be found in the chapter on baths. 
If the patient has a headache or is ''out of his 
head," wring a cloth out of cold water and put 
over his forehead. 

Sometimes the abdomen is full of gas which will 
make it look round and full. If the doctor orders 
turpentine stupes, you will find directions for 
them in the chapter on applications to relieve 
pain. 

If a bowel movement is dark and looks as 
though it contained tar the doctor must be told 
at once. This dark tar-like color is caused by 
blood. The patient has had a hemorrhage. 
Raise the foot of the bed and take away his pillow, 
but do not be panicky about it. No matter how 
disturbed you are, you must be cool on the out- 
side, for the patient must not be excited. All 



128 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

food, water, and medicine must be stopped until 
you hear from the doctor. 

If you live in the city or village where there 
is a sewer, be very careful about disinfecting the 
bath water and contents of the bedpan before 
they are put in the closet. If in the country 
and an outside closet is used by the family, do not 
empty the bath water and bedpan into it. Have 
some member of the family dig a hole, away from 
the house and below the well or water supply of 
both house and the barn. In this hole, empty 
the bath water, urine, and bowel movement, 
after they have been disinfected. Keep an old 
fire shovel, dustpan, or even a shingle, by the 
hole and as quickly as you empty the bedpan, 
shovel in dirt enough to thoroughly cover the 
stool. Any cloths, cotton, soiled pads, paper, or 
cloth used for wiping the mouth and the tooth- 
picks used to clean the teeth must be burned here. 
Have a plentiful supply of chloride of lime and use 
it. Everjrthing must be covered thoroughly with 
earth, so that the flies will not be attracted. 
This hole must be covered with boards so that 
nothing can get in it, and when the patient is well 
must be filled with earth and plenty of lime. Do 
this carefully and you will not have an epidemic of 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 129 

typhoid on your conscience. Use quicklime. It 
is cheap and you can have any amount of it. 
Mix it with water until it is like cream, cover the 
contents of the bedpan with this, and pour it into 
the hole where you bury and burn the refuse from 
the sick room. 

As the patient grows better, he will have abso- 
lutely no judgment about his food. It will be the 
big thing in the world to him and he will be hungry 
all the time. The liquid diet will grow very tire- 
some to him but it means life, and solid food 
means a serious relapse, or death. You must 
be firm about this, for it is one of the most impor- 
tant parts of typhoid nursing. He must be fed 
like a baby and his temperature taken regularly, 
even after he is out of bed. As he grows better, 
his temperature will be higher at night than in 
the morning, but not as high as it was the night 
before. Each night it will be a Httle less until it 
reaches normal. 

The nurse must take great care of herself. Her 
hands and nails must be scrubbed. She must 
never eat anything before washing her hands 
and must not eat in the sick room. When the 
patient is better, be careful about visitors. Do not 
let them take any fruit or food into the sick room 



130 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING . 

and do not let them stay long. Everything must 
be fumigated and cleaned after the patient is well. 
Remember that the doctor is the best judge of 
what the patient should eat. There will always 
be friends who will feel perfectly competent to 
advise in this matter. They will not tell an engi- 
neer how to run his train or a tailor how to cut his 
cloth, but will know much more about the needs of 
the patient than the doctor, or the trained nurse 
if there be one. It is usually safe to let the 
engineer run his train, or the tailor cut his cloth, so 
why not, as he has been trained for it, let the doctor 
prescribe for his patient. Someone will say, ''My 
cousin's half-sister ate whatever she wanted 
when she was sick and was in much more pain than 
your father." True, but **my cousin's half- 
sister" had a broken leg and your father has 
typhoid fever. Don't argue with these kind- 
hearted people, but take what they bring. Then 
when your father is comfortably resting, scrub 
your hands to avoid infection, sit down in an easy 
chair in the next room, and eat the rice pudding, 
the sponge cake, and the fruit that was never 
known to hurt anyone, and say nothing. There 
are many gravestones which should bear this 
inscription: "Killed by our loving friends." 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 131 

PNEUMONIA 

Pneumonia is often brought on by exposure, 
when the person is very tired. It will probably 
do you no harm to get wet, if you take a hot 
bath and a hot drink and put on dry clothing. 

One attack of some diseases discourages a 
second, but with pneumonia a second attack is 
more easily contracted than the first. A person 
who drinks alcoholic liquor to excess is going to 
have a much greater fight to live than one 
who is temperate or one who does not drink at 
all. 

This is a short disease, lasting from three to 
eleven days. As the heart is weakened by the 
disease, the patient must be kept in bed. He 
must lie quiet, not moving or being moved more 
than is absolutely necessary. He must be helped 
to drink and must use the bedpan. Liquid diet 
is usually given but the doctor will order the diet. 
What he orders must be given the patient and 
nothing else. 

The windows must be open all the time, even 
in winter. No one but the nurse must be in 
the room unless she needs help in lifting the pa- 
tient. 



132 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

The patient's mouth should be cleaned carefully 
with a mouth wash and cotton on the finger, 
after which the nurse must scrub her hands 
carefully. 

The patient will cough and expectorate, so 
little pieces of cloth or paper should be used by 
him in place of a handkerchief. These pieces 
of cloth or paper should be put at once in a paper 
bag which is always near the patient. This 
must be burned, as the germs of the pneumonia 
are in the sputum. Great care should be taken 
with the bath and about exposing the patient. 
Bathe him only enough for cleanliness and do it 
under a blanket. Good nursing is most important. 
The patient must not move himself or reach for 
things. The nurse must hold the glass or cup 
from which he drinks. Wipe his mouth with a 
cloth or paper after he coughs and keep him quiet. 
There must be no talking or excitement. The 
patient must be watched constantly, as he may 
be delirious and try to get out of bed. Use pads 
under the patient's hips, for if he is unconscious 
and his bowels move without warning, this will 
enable you to keep him clean without moving 
him to change the sheet. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 133 

SCARLET FEVER 

Scarlet fever is to be dreaded because it is 
dangerous in itself and because it may lead to 
many serious complications. The patient and 
the nurse must be isolated at least six weeks. 

In scarlet fever, the eruption comes first on the 
neck, chest, and back, and then over the entire 
body. 

A mild case must have as careful attention 
during the fever and convalescence as a more 
serious case. The patient must not be allowed 
to overeat, take cold, or get overtired. 

A child may not be sick in from one to ten days 
from the time he has been exposed. Young 
children sometimes are taken with convulsions, 
older children with a chill, or it may come on with 
a sore throat, headache, high fever and vomiting. 
At first the rash is only pale red points. Later 
the rash is bright and covers the body. The 
throat and mouth will be bright red, the tongue 
will be coated white and later will have red spots 
on it. This is called the strawberry tongue and 
is one of the symptoms of scarlet fever. 

The patient must be put in a room by himself 
at once. All unnecessary furnishings must be 



134 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING . 

removed from the room, for everything in the 
sick room should be burned after the patient is 
well. The patient must have no company and 
absolute quarantine must be insisted upon. All 
clothing taken from the room must be carefully 
disinfected. Keep a sheet, wet in a disinfecting 
solution, hanging over the door of the sick room. 

This disease is not necessarily fatal, if the 
patient is strong and well nourished, but even with 
careful treatment there may be unhappy after- 
effects, such as a weak heart, deafness, weak eyes 
or blindness, a weak throat, subject to tonsillitis, 
or inflammation of the kidneys. The mouth and 
throat will need great care. The doctor will 
probably order a liquid diet for the patient. After 
the fever is lower, the patient may have a light 
diet. This diet should be nourishing but nothing 
should be given which is at all hard to digest. 
The doctor will order the diet. 

The patient must be carefully guarded against 
a relapse. He may recover from the fever and 
then some little thing will cause a relapse, which 
will be much more serious than the fever. A 
little boy recovering from scarlet fever played 
by an open window. The weather was damp 
and rainy and the little boy took cold. His 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 135 

relapse was very much worse than his fever, 
with serious kidney complications. This caused 
both additional expense and heart-breaking 
anxiety to the parents. 

Everything must be carefully disinfected and 
cared for as in typhoid fever. Dishes, clothing, 
and bedding must be soaked in disinfecting 
solution and washed by themselves. The child 
must be kept quarantined as long as the peeling 
continues, which will be from two to six weeks. 
The room must be well aired all the time, but the 
child must not be in a draft or take cold. Rub 
his body with olive oil, or lard, every day. This 
will relieve the itching and keep the particles of 
skin from floating about. Do not let the patient 
out of bed until the doctor orders it. You will be 
able to tell when the peeling is accomplished, for 
the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are 
the last to peel. 

When the patient is let out of quarantine, he 
must have a warm bath, including his hair. The 
nurse must do the same. Everything in the 
room which can be burned should be burned at 
once. The woodwork must be washed and the 
room fumigated. It is best to ask the advice of 
the doctor about the fumigation of the room. 



136 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING ^ 

Many things which were at one time considered 
good fumigators have since been discarded as 
worthless, one of these things being the sulphur 
candle. The fumigator which is now considered 
the best is formaldehyde. This is what is called 
germicide. When the room is fumigated, all 
cracks must be closed and the closet doors and 
bureau drawers left open. The pillows and 
mattress, if not burned, should be ripped open , so 
that the fumes of the formaldehyde may penetrate 
thoroughly, killing every germ. The health offi- 
cer of a town will, as a rule, attend to the fumi- 
gation. If you cannot afford to bum the bed, it 
must be taken out of doors, thoroughly scrubbed 
with a disinfectant, and repainted. Scarlet fe- 
ver germs will live for years. Children have 
been known to take the disease from books used 
long before by other children having scarlet 
fever. Give paper and wood toys to your child 
and burn them on the general bonfire after his 
recovery. No matter how good a thing may be 
and no matter how much you dislike parting with 
it, you will not think it worth a life. One or many 
lives can very easily be sacrificed by a single 
picture book or mattress, saved after scarlet 
fever. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 137 

DIPHTHERIA 

Diphtheria is a highly infectious disease and 
absolute quarantine should be observed. This 
is fully as important in a light case as in a severe 
case. Careful nursing is necessary. The throat 
will need particular attention. The first day the 
throat will be red, then a gray membrane will 
form. When spraying the throat, the nurse must 
protect her eyes with glasses and her nose and 
mouth with a cloth tied over them. The patient 
will have swollen tonsils, be feverish, and have 
difficulty in swallowing. 

The child will need a quantity of nourishment, 
which must be in liquid form, and should be given 
plenty of drinking water. It is necessary that the 
patient take a liberal amount of nourishment to 
give him strength, as the disease is very weakening. 
Absolute quiet and rest for the patient is necessary. 
The doctor may order quicklime to be slacked in 
the room, or a boiling teakettle, to keep the air 
moist. In either case, the croup tent, described 
in the notes on croup, can be used. The pulse 
of the patient must be watched carefully and all 
orders of the doctor strictly obeyed. All cloths 
or paper napkins used for wiping the mouth or 



138 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

nose must be burned at once. The germs of the 
disease are in the discharges from the nose and 
throat and in the membrane. If great care is 
taken to catch all discharges in cloths and burn 
them at once, there will be very little danger 
for the rest of the family. The period of isolation 
will depend upon the recovery of the patient. 
The doctor will take cultures of the throat and will 
tell you what to do. When the patient is better, 
he is still not out of danger, as there may be 
many disastrous after-effects, the same as in scarlet 
fever. The patient must have plenty of nourish- 
ing food and fresh air. The voice may become 
very weak but will grow stronger as the patient 
grows stronger. Everything in the room must be 
disinfected, the same as in scarlet fever. The 
doctor will give antitoxin to the patient and all 
members of the family who have been exposed. 
Since the use of antitoxin, diphtheria is not as 
terrifying a disease as before. 

MEASLES 

Measles is very infectious and in almost all 
places a strict quarantine is required. It may be 
given to others from the time the patient is first 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 139 

sick until the skin has entirely finished peeling. 
This peeling or desquamating, as it is called, is not 
like scarlet fever where the skin comes ofi in little 
pieces or strips but is fine and easily scattered or 
carried on the clothing. Infection is also spread by 
the discharges of the nose, mouth, bladder, and 
bowels. These discharges must be disinfected. 
The eyes will need particular care. The patient 
must not be where a light can shine in his eyes 
either from the sun or a lamp. In some cases it is 
necessary to darken the room. If the eyes are 
not sore, dark glasses are very convenient for the 
patient can see what is going on about him and be 
entertained. 

Some children have measles very lightly and 
others are very ill. Measles often go through a 
school or town, leaving many little graves behind, 
and is not to be treated lightly as a necessary evil 
but should be avoided. A child coming down with 
measles usually begins with the symptoms of a 
cold. He will be feverish, then chilly, will run at 
the nose, have no appetite, feel stupid or languid, 
and have inflamed eyes. Sometimes he will 
vomit. There is a pecuHar characteristic odor 
which goes with measles and sometimes it may be 
identified by that. The rash usually shows on the 



140 THE BOOK OP HOME NURSING 

fourth day. It comes on the chin, forehead, 
throat, face, and then the body. Put the child 
in bed and keep him warm. The rash lasts from 
two to five days and then fades away. Then the 
peeling or desquamation begins. Sometimes the 
patient is very ill and very uncomfortable with 
sore throat and fever. The nose, mouth, and 
throat must be cleansed with a boracic acid solu- 
tion unless the doctor orders some other mouth 
wash. If the patient's nose is sore, cleanse it 
very gently with a tiny piece of cotton on a tooth- 
pick, using vaseline or sweet oil. Keep the room 
well aired but the patient must never be in a 
draft. While he is convalescing keep him away 
from the open windows, especially if it rains or is 
cold. This might cause a serious relapse with 
pneumonia. 

The patient's food will be milk, broth, eggs, or 
gruel. If he is not very ill, the doctor may let 
him have toast, fruit, and many other things. 

MUMPS 

A case of mumps will usually be ushered in 
with headache, vomiting, and pain under the 
ears. One of the distinguishing symptoms of 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 141 

mumps is an inability to eat anything sour. 
The acid causes great pain. The patient should 
be kept in bed until the swelling is entirely gone. 
The mouth should be washed frequently and the 
throat gargled if the patient can do so without 
pain. The bowels must be kept open and a 
liquid diet given as long as the fever lasts. As it 
will be painful and difficult to open the mouth, 
water and nourishment should be given through a 
drinking tube or straw. While this disease is 
very painful it is not dangerous of itself but must 
have careful nursing for it is often followed by 
serious complications. 

WHOOPING COUGH 

Whooping cough begins like a cold and will 
continue about this way for about ten days when 
the distinctive cough will be heard. The patient 
will often vomit when coughing. He should be 
kept away from other children but should be out 
of doors in fair weather unless coughing violently 
or has nose bleed. Then he should be put in bed 
and given a large pillow. He should be kept 
warm, given a light diet, and his bowels should 
have careful attention. The child will cough 



142 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

from one to three months. Whooping cough is 
a wearisome disease and should be avoided if 
possible. 

CHICKEN POX 

Chicken pox may cause very little trouble, 
especially with children. It sometimes causes 
vomiting and pain in the back or legs. The 
pimples come first on the back and chest and later 
make tiny sores. These sores will heal without 
leaving scars if the patient does not scratch them. 
A heavy attack of chicken pox resembles a light 
attack of smallpox, only in smallpox the rash 
comes first on the face. This is a good thing to 
remember. If the children in your neighborhood 
are having chicken pox and your child has a rash 
on his body and vomits, give him a warm bath, 
a light diet, and keep him warm and dry. If, 
however the rash comes first on his face you 
should have your doctor see him at once. A 
child having chicken pox should be kept away from 
other children, until the tiny sores are healed. 
He should have a sponge bath each day and the 
scabs or the crusts of the sores should be oiled. 
This can be done with a small piece of absorbent 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 143 

cotton. Do not rub the sores but touch or pat 
them gently with the oil and cotton. After the child 
is well, wash his clothing and the bed linen, air 
the mattress and pillows in the sun, and clean 
the room. Fumigation is not necessary. 

GERMAN MEASLES 

German measles resembles measles but is not 
as serious. The rash comes first around the 
mouth, on the neck and back of the ears, then on 
the chest and body. The patient as a rule is not 
very ill and does not need to be in bed. He should 
have a light diet, be kept warm and away from 
other children from ten to fifteen days. Disin- 
fection is not necessary after this disease. Clean 
the room, wash clothing and bed linen, and air 
mattress, pillows, and blankets in the sun. 

CROUP 

Anyone who has been awakened in the night 
by the hoarse croupy breathing of a little child 
will not forget it, neither will he forget the terror- 
stricken hurry to relieve it. 
, There are two kinds of croup. The most 



144 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

common type is spasmodic croup which usually 
responds to treatment and is seldom fatal. Mem- 
branous croup is much more serious, but the 
treatment given before the doctor comes is the 
same in both cases. Keep the child in a warm 
room where you can have a boiling teakettle. 
Damp air relieves the difficult breathing. Put 
cloths wrung out of hot water around the child's 
throat. If this does not relieve the patient, give 
him one teaspoonful of syrup of ipecac and 
repeat every half hour imtil he vomits freely. Put 
him in a hot bath, taking care not to bum him. 
Place the kitchen table near the stove. Lay the 
mattress from the child's crib or two or three 
pillows on the table, cover the inside of a long 
handled umbrella with a woolen blanket, and tie 
the umbrella handle to the leg of the table. Tuck 
the ends of the blanket which hang from the 
umbrella under the pillows at the end and one 
side of the table making a little tent. Lay the 
child under this with a large pillow under his 
head. Make a tube of stiff paper and pin over 
the spout of the teakettle to direct the steam 
under the imibrella. 

In case you do not have syrup of ipecac in the 
house, do not wait to send for it. Give one tea- 




Paper Toys Cut from Old Magazines and Made to Stand 

WITH Cardboard Strips. These can be Burned 

when they have Served their Usefulness 

[Page Ii6] 




The Croup Tent 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 145 

spoonful of mustard in a cup of warm water 
or one tablespoonful of salt in a cup of warm 
water to make the patient vomit. The child 
will not take this as easily as he would the syrup of 
ipecac. It is so much for a little person to drink. 
Keep cool yourself and do not excite the child. 
Avoid anything that will make him cry or cough. 
Keep up this treatment until the doctor arrives. 
A woolen blanket must be used on the umbrella 
as it will absorb moisture. A cotton sheet would 
not hold the moisture and would allow it to drop 
on the patient. The child's bowels must be kept 
open and he must have great care for several days 
after the attack. 



A STITCH IN TIME 

/ 

Doctor Woods Hutchinson in his book, Instinct 
and Health, says, ''The influence of modesty, that 
curious virtue which begins just where innocence 
and purity leave off, would require a whole chapter, 
but it would be both humiliating and hopeless. 
Suffice it to say, that the story of the fig leaves in 
the garden of Eden is both typical and significant. 
It never occurred to our first parents that they 
needed them until after the episode of the apple." 

Ignorance is not innocence and many times 

leads straight to sin and misery. As soon as 

your child begins to ask questions, that is the 

time to tell him the great truths of nature. If you 

lie to him and say "a stork brought you," "the 

doctor brought you, " or any other tale which has 

been made up by people who are too evil minded 

to see the beauty and sacredness of the wonderful 

miracle of birth, then the truth will be told him 

at a very early age and at the first opportunity, 

by some other child who has a fund of perverted 

146 



A STITCH IN TIME 147 

knowledge which he is sowing about him, in the 
same way a thistle scatters its seeds. I have 
known a single girl at school to enlighten twenty- 
others with the aid of a doctor book which she 
had found at home in a locked drawer; a perfectly 
good book, which should have been explained to 
this girl long before by her mother, for then there 
would have been no morbid curiosity about the 
subject, or desire to tell others. If it had been 
told as a story or a lesson, she would not 
have gone about repeating it. Who ever knew 
a girl, or a boy either, to take a playmate back of a 
big tree and tell over their spelling lesson or the 
story of Robinson Crusoe? 

If you do not know how to tell these things, 
there are plenty of good books which will give 
you unlimited knowledge, and they can be bought 
for as little as twenty cents. ^ 

Do not think that because your daughter or 
son is safe within the fold of a private school, the 
wolf of evil, contaminating knowledge, will not 
be able to come near. I once knew of a little 
girl of ten who came home to her mother from a 

^How to Tell the Story of Life. By T. W. Shannon, A.M. 
S. A. Mullikin Publishing Co., Marietta, Ohio. 

Three Gifts of Life. By NelHe M. Smith, A.M. Dodd, Mead, 
& Co., Publishers, New York City. 



148 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

private school, her eyes big and horrified with 
what she had been told. The mother to her 
everlasting satisfaction took the little girl in her 
arms and told her all she wanted to know. She 
told her this was a very private and sacred subject 
and not to be discussed with other little girls, but 
if ever she wanted to know any more about this 
subject to come to mother. Mother would be 
glad to tell her the truth about these things at 
any time. That because evil-minded people had 
degraded the mystery of birth, it was no less a 
beautiful, wonderful thing, in the same way that 
God is no less holy, because profane people have 
taken his name in vain. 

She has been repaid a thousand times by the 
absolute confidence of this daughter, who goes to 
her with all her confidences. One day the mother 
overheard this remark concerning a very different 
subject : 

*'Yes, I know it is true. My mother told me 
so and my mother has never told me a lie." Hence 
the everlasting satisfaction. Tell your girls and 
boys the things they should know. If the father 
cannot bring himself to talk to his son, ask your 
family doctor to tell the boy the things he should 
know for the good of his own health, the health 



A STITCH IN TIME 149 

and happiness of the wife he will some day have, 
so that his children may grow up with strong 
bodies and clear minds, and last but not least, 
for the good of his own soul. 

You teach your sons and daughters not to lie or 
steal, to be courteous and honorable in business, 
but much more important it is for your sons and 
daughters and grandchildren-to-be that the knowl- 
edge of clean, honorable living be given your 
children, before it is too late. 

When your little daughter sees no reason why 
she cannot skip the rope on the sidewalk after 
dark, say to her: "If I left my purse or diamond 
ring on the walk after dark and someone carried 
it away, you would feel it was lost through my 
own carelessness, vv^ould you not? How much 
more careful must I be with my daughter, who 
is more precious to me than diamonds or any- 
thing in the world." If a child feels that she is 
watched over lovingly, she will not resent it and 
be disobedient, as she surely will if she thinks she 
is restricted by arbitrary rules, which she does 
not understand. 

When your little daughter is twelve years old, or 
even before that, if you think necessary, tell her 
about the menstrual period, in order that she may 



^^m 



150 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

not be frightened if it comes without warning. 
Before the monthly periods really begin, you will 
notice a swelling of her breasts. She may not 
feel as well and will cry easily. Always try 
to be sympathetic about her troubles, which 
may seem very trivial to you but which are 
large to her. Keep her warm and comfortable 
and give her nourishing food. See that she has 
plenty of fresh air but no violent exercise, and 
when the. menstruation begins, give her special 
care and sympathy. If she feels tired, languid, 
or is in pain, keep her out of school for a day, or 
until she feels equal to going again. Tuck her 
up in a big chair or on a couch, with a blanket to 
keep her warm, give her a warm drink, and place 
a hot-water bag at her feet. Children at this 
age will not lie down after they are in a condition 
to be about. Sometimes they overdo because of 
their own important concerns or because urged 
to do so by their elders. Irregular menstrual 
periods are not always alarming at first, but if 
not regular by the fifteenth year, the girl should see 
a doctor. Excessive pain is not necessary and is 
caused usually by something which can be 
remedied by medicine or treatment. This should 
be referred at once to your doctor. 



BEFORE THE BABY COMES 

Doctor Woods Hutchinson says, *'What the 
mother is, that will the child be. Not only physi- 
cally but to an extraordinary degree mentally and 
morally. It is not so much what you do for your 
children or teach them that counts as what you 
are. It is far more dramatic for a mother to die 
for her children than to live for them, but it is not 
half so good for the children and the maternal 
self-sacrifice should be balanced by a good whole- 
some share of intelligent selfishness in order to 
develop the best type of children. The best 
mother both in the beginning and in the long run 
is the one who takes the best care of her own 
health, of her good looks, and keeps up an intelli- 
gent interest in life, so that she may remain the 
delightful chum and the valued adviser of her 
children all their lives long.'* 

The old idea that the baby must not be men- 
tioned until he has actually arrived, that all prepa- 
ration for his coming must be done secretly, as if it 

151 



152 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

were a disgrace, has gone the way of many other 
silly notions. To-day when the young wife confides 
in her friends and tells them that a baby is coming 
she is congratulated and not condoned with as 
she would have been twenty years ago. The 
fashion has changed, which is a lucky thing for 
the baby, for any flower blossoms best in the sun. 

In a well-known text-book on nursing, one 
remembered by all trained nurses as an important 
part of their hospital days, Clara Weeks expresses 
herself as believing that a little knowledge is not 
a dangerous thing, if that knowledge be real and 
genuine, and she asks, "If a little knowledge be a 
dangerous thing, then where is the man who 
knows enough to be out of danger? The more 
you know and the more thoroughly you know it, 
the more will you realize the depth of your own 
ignorance. The people who know the least 
about a subject are sometimes the most ready to 
talk about it and give advice." 

When your baby is coming is not the time to 
listen to neighbors who cheerfully come forward 
with doleful warnings and advice and stories of 
what happened to this or that person. 

Write to the Children's Bureau, Department of 
Labor, Washington, D. C, and ask them to send 



BEFORE THE BABY COMES 153 

you the pamphlets called Prenatal Care and Infant 
Care. They will be sent you free of charge. 
Uncle Sam assumes the responsibility of the 
expense even to the postage. These two pam- 
phlets, written by Mrs. Max West, will give you 
much advice and the knowledge gained from them 
will not be a dangerous thing but will fortify you 
against all the silly superstitions and harmful 
notions which grow and thrive so amazingly in 
country places and, sad to say, also in cities, al- 
though in the cities the visiting nurse is doing 
much to exterminate them. Authentic informa- 
tion is what you must have and there is no better 
way and surely no cheaper than by consulting 
the books printed by the Government of the 
United States for the enlightenment of its citizens. 
The pamphlet on prenatal care will tell you 
ever3^hing necessary for you to know on this 
subject. It tells what the expectant mother 
must do for her own health and the health of her 
child. What preparation to make for the con- 
finement, what to do in case the doctor does not 
arrive, also the care of the tiny baby, and much 
other useful information. It will tell you what 
to wear (dresses, shoes, underclothes, etc.). As 
no directions have been given for a wrap for out- 



154 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

of-door wear, I will tell you about the Liberty 
Cape. The Liberty Cape was introduced by the 
Liberty Store in London for use as an evening 
wrap. This wrap is made of three yards of goods, 
silk or thin wool for summer, broadcloth or any 
other heavy cloth for winter. It can be lined 
as you choose and may be very plain or can be 
trimmed elaborately, and "a child can make it.'* 
Fold the cloth together in the middle, so it will 
be one and one half yards on the edge, fasten the 
edges together on one side, fifteen inches from the 
fold. Open the short edges and put it around 
the neck. The fifteen-inch part will form a hood- 
shaped drapery in the back, and the cape will 
fall in pretty lines around your figure. A large 
tassel fastened to the point of the hood adds to 
the attractiveness of the cape. 

Your condition is a perfectly normal one and 
you should not be sick or miserable. If you are 
not well, see your doctor. Have your husband 
and other grown-up members of the family and 
the person who is to care for you during confine- 
ment read and study these Government pamphlets. 
Then in case of an emergency, they will know 
exactly what to do. If you live on a farm, it is 
nine chances to one that you are already ac- 




Black Broadcloth Liberty Cape 

The collar was made from the corners which were 
cut from the bottom of the cape. When wide 
material is used the corners must be cut to 
correspond with the bottom at the back. 
Narrow material need not be cut, as it forms 
pretty, pointed sides. These may be finished 
with a tassel like the one on the hood, if desired. 



^^^m 



BEFORE THE BABY COMES 155 

quainted with Government pamphlets on fruit 
trees, pigs, or silos. No good farmer should be 
ignorant concerning his own wife and child when 
just as good pamphlets on these subjects can be 
had for the asking from the government which he 
helps to support by paying taxes. 

The bed for confinement should be made accord- 
ing to directions in the chapter on bed making and 
all care given the same as for any other sick person. 
There must be no visitors for a few days. The 
baby may be looked at but must not be handled. 
This will break the hearts of some of the friends 
and neighbors but their suffering will not be as 
much as the baby's if he is handled, so let them 
suffer. 

Do not spend your time making fancy baby 
clothes which should not be on your baby at all. 
Stay out of doors all you can, rest, and read, but 
sew just as little as you can and yet have your 
baby sweet and clean. He will be better and so 
will you. Simple baby clothing is the fashion 
now and if this fashion has not yet reached your 
neighborhood, you will be doing a service to wo- 
mankind and babykind as well by introducing it. 

The pamphlet on infant care tells you in simple 
language how to dress and feed your baby, how 



156 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

to bathe and air him. So many mothers say, 
"If only I had known the wise things to do for 
my baby that are done in these days, he might 
have been stronger and happier/' In those old 
days people believed in instinct, a marvelous kind 
of second sight, which was supposed to come to 
a mother with the birth of her baby and which 
has been relegated to the scrap heap along with 
the beHefs in witches, and the healing powers of 
red flannel. In these days mothers do not sit 
still and wait for ideas and knowledge to fall 
upon them like dew from heaven. They go out 
after it and what is better when once the knowledge 
is theirs they use it. Now mothers know that 
babies must have fresh air and short, sensible, 
clothing. Not a stuffy hot room and berufHed, 
starched monstrosities called clothing which used 
to be worn by babies. Send for these two pam- 
phlets and follow their advice. Your doctor will 
heartily approve and you and your baby will 
profit amazingly. You have heard the biblical 
expression, "A Mother in Israel." Julia C. 
Lathrop, who is the chief of this wonderful bureau, 
should be called "A Mother in Washington," or 
perhaps an aunt, as we think of her in connection 
with Uncle Sam. 




An Easy Way to Xurse the Baby 




Wash the Apple before you Give it to your 
Little Girl 

[Page 201] 



BEFORE THE BABY COMES 157 

LITTLE HELPS FOR THE WEE BABY 

Small squares of old linen or muslin placed in 
the diaper save much unpleasant washing. These 
little squares catch the stools and can be burned 
and the diaper put in cold water until you have 
time to wash it. Do not dry the diapers wet with 
urine and put on the baby again before washing. 
It will make his skin sore and give him an un- 
pleasant smell. As quickly as he can sit up 
alone, get a little china or granite chamber or a 
little chair and teach him to use it regularly each 
day. Regular habits can be easily established. 
Be very careful that he is not left in the chair long 
enough to tire him. Wash, dry, and powder the 
baby carefully, each time the diaper is changed. 
If the baby wakens with a scream, you will find 
that he has just wet his diaper and you will also 
find that the skin is sore. Urine scalds the sore 
skin. This is one of the very important things 
in the care of a baby and must have constant 
and careful attention. Bathe and powder and if 
the skin is red, use vaseline, oxide of zinc oint- 
ment, or olive oil. 

Cotton is better than linen for diapers. If 
outing flannel or cotton is used it must be washed 



^ 



158 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

and boiled before using, otherwise it will not be 
absorbent. Do not put diapers made of rubber 
cloth on the baby. Use a pad made of cheese- 
cloth and cotton. This may cover a square of 
rubber cloth to be put under him in the carriage, in 
the crib, or even on one*s lap, but the rubber cloth 
diapers must not be used. 

One day I saw on the street car a baby buttoned 
into a coat made like a bag, very much like the 
one shown on page twenty-one in the pamphlet 
on infant care. He was the happiest baby I have 
seen in a long time and no one seemed to think 
his mother a freak because her baby*s hands were 
in the bag warm and comfortable. 



FEET 

No wonder our poor feet shriek with pain. 
They are more abused and neglected than any 
other part of our body. People who have very 
good judgment about what they put in their 
stomachs, seem to have none at all about what 
they put on their feet. Shoes are not made to fit 
the feet but the poor feet must bend and twist to 
fit the shoes. A baby's foot is a pretty thing but 
how far from being things of beauty are most 
grown-up feet. The toes overlap each other. 
The big- toe joint is not smooth and straight but 
in many cases a howling knob which makes an 
unsightly lump on the shoe and spoils what would 
otherwise be a sweet disposition. All because 
custom says, ''Wear pointed toes, high heels, and 
otherwise make a fool of yourself." 

When people insist upon having shoes to fit 
their feet, the shoe manufacturers will make them 
that way. Some few manufacturers have begun 
but there will have to be new patterns and a 

159 



i6o THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

great change of heart before comfortable shoes are 
fashionable. The pointed toes with high heels 
remind one of little hoofs and with these pointed 
shoes there is absolutely no way in which the 
toes can help us in walking. Is it not silly when 
you stop to think of it, to be so uncomfortable 
just because someone else wants to be so. This 
is not such a civilized country as it might be and 
we have no right to make fun of the Chinese shoes, 
for our own shoes are just as silly. 

The skirts also are either too short or too long, 
like the Feejee Islanders. The painted faces 
are like the Africans and the headdresses would 
disgrace an American Indian. But headdresses 
are a long way from feet. First have comfortable, 
well-fitting shoes. Bathe the feet each day and 
have clean stockings each morning if possible. If 
you cannot have enough stockings to change so 
often, wash them out at night and put them on 
again in the morning. 

Cut the nails straight across and if you have 
corns, callouses, or bunions, go to a chiropodist if 
possible. Tired and swollen feet should be bathed 
each day with hot water and soap. Then dip 
them in cold water or hold them under the cold- 
water faucet. Rub them with alcohol and witch- 



FEET i6i 

hazel and dust them with talcum powder or corn- 
starch. Changing the shoes will also give great relief. 
One visit to a chiropodist will teach you many 
things. He will make cushions to take the 
pressure of your shoes from the tender com or big- 
toe joint. He will treat and powder and stick 
on plasters until you wonder if your shoes will go 
over them, but when your shoes are once on and 
you start toward the elevator you will be surprised 
at the ease with which you walk. You will feel, 
all at once, as if your fairy god-mother had waved 
her wand over you and taken away both years 
and weight. You will feel young, light, and 
* * dancy . ' * While the ministrations of the chiropo- 
dist are fresh in your mind, stop at the drug store 
for a roll of adhesive plaster and at the ten-cent 
store for a piece of chamois skin. You can get a 
piece nearly a foot square for ten cents. Select 
the thickest you can find. When the pads which 
the chiropodist has put on your feet come off, 
you can use them as patterns for new ones. You 
may need two or three thicknesses, if the joints 
or corns are large. If you cannot go to a chiropo- 
dist, get the adhesive plaster and chamois skin, 
and doctor the sore places yourself. Soak your 
feet in hot salt and water, then put them in cold 



B 



162 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

water or pour cold water over them. Trim 
the corns and callouses carefully with a sharp 
knife (a sharp knife hurts less than a dull one) 
being very careful not to cut too deep for you 
must not have sores on your feet and must not 
cut deep enough to draw blood. If your big-toe 
joint is hard and painful you will need to cut a 
plaster to fit it. If the joint is so enlarged that 
one thickness of chamois skin is not enough to 
keep the shoe from hurting, cut two or three 
thicknesses and sew them together. Do not have 
lumpy places in the skin or knots in the thread 
when you sew. When your pad is made, stick it 
in place with adhesive plaster. 

Com protectors are made in the same way 
as the pads for the big-toe joints, only they 
are cut in a different shape. Always be gen- 
erous with the talcum powder before putting 
on your stocking. This will not only make the 
feet comfortable but will keep the plaster from 
sticking to the stocking. Cut the toenails straight 
across. If the nail grows into the toe at the edge, 
cut a little wedged-shape piece from the middle 
of the top edge of the nail, and the nail will be 
so busy growing to fill up this little place that it 
will have no time to grow down at the side. 



FEET 163 

When the feet are painful, great relief is some- 
times gained by soaking them in hot soapy water, 
rinsing carefully, drying, and rubbing briskly 
with a good liniment. Wash your hands carefully 
after using the liniment. 

Some people are not comfortable in very low- 
heeled shoes but the very high heels should never 
be used for walking. If your feet are swollen in 
the morning and you have no time during the day 
to change your shoes, wear lace shoes; then the 
laces may be tightened as the swelling leaves your 
feet, keeping the shoe snug. A shoe which slides 
and twists on the foot is just as harmful as one 
which is too tight. 

Olive oil is recommended for chillblains. The 
feet must be kept dry and stockings changed 
frequently. The following prescription for a 
mixture to relieve the terrible itching and burning, 
of chillblains is given in the "Beauty Culture" 
book by William Woodbury. 



Burnt alum 5 gr. 

Iodide of potassium 2 gr. 

Laudanum 2 gr. 

Rose pomade 5 gr. 

Fresh lard 3 gr. 



^■1 



i64 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Rub the hard or calloused places with vaseline 
or olive oil, trim them carefully, and use pads to 
remove the pressure of the shoe. If there are 
sore places use oxide of zinc ointment. Do not 
use all kinds of salves or plasters for many times 
they cause blood poisoning, and then also you can 
make your own plasters at half the cost. If 
your feet are painful, visit the best chiropodist 
you can find and follow his advice. 



THE FALLEN ARCH 

In the Newark, N. J. Board of Health Bulletin 
No. 22 (1915), Dr. W. S. Disbrow says: 

One of the most common superstitions of to-day 
is known as the "Fallen Arch." 

Various conditions have associated to produce 
this condition of mind, chief of which is the big 
plaster of Paris foot in the shoe store which calls 
your attention to the fact that the feet which you 
thought were in good walking order are in fact flat 
and ducklike, and that you need supports. 

Where you find two or three persons gathered 
together, you can bet with a great margin of safety 
that the foot is the subject of discussion, and the 
relative degrees of deformity of each individual's 
pedal extremity is considered with the greatest 
interest. 

There is perhaps enough iron and other metals 
used uselessly in the manufacture of the various 
so-called supports to build a dreadnought. There 
are but few families who have no discarded arch 

165 



i66 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

supports somewhere around the house, and the 
high-priced shoes which go with them you will find 
in the store-room, useless and abandoned. 

There are many cases where careful orthopedic 
work is imperatively needed. Such cases need the 
expert as it's a subject for great study — it is no 
shoe dealer's problem even though extensive ad- 
vertising would so imply. 

There are too many unnecessary supports sold 
and many, instead of being even to a slight degree 
helpful are positively harmful. Be sure that your 
feet won't help you before you encase them with 
the monstrosities of leather and iron. The chances 
are that if you can support yourself on the tips of 
your toes with ease you have all the arch you or 
anyone else needs for anatomical reasons. 

Walk about on the toes for exercise and you will 
receive more benefit than from all the devices in 
the market. If you can tip-toe you don't need 
them. 



WHAT TO GIVE IN^CASE OF POISONING 

If a person has swallowed poison, send for a 
doctor at once. In the meantime keep cool and 
do what you can until the doctor arrives. 

GAS POISONING 

If you waken in the night and find the house 
filled with coal gas, open all windows and doors 
and see that all the family are safe. If you get 
no response from some member of the family, go to 
him at once. Fill your lungs with fresh air before 
entering the room and hold your breath as long as 
possible. If there is much gas in the room, crawl 
on the floor; there is sometimes less gas near 
the floor. Take the person who is unconscious 
from gas poisoning into the fresh air, send for 
the doctor, loosen the patient's clothing, sprinkle 
cold water on the patient's face and chest, and 
give artificial respiration. When the patient has 
recovered enough to be conscious, give a stimu- 
lating drink of coffee or whiskey. 

167 



^^ 



i68 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

PTOMAINE POISON 

If several members of the family become ill 
at one time, they have probably been poisoned 
by something in the food, or, as it is commonly 
called, have ptomaine poisoning. After sending 
for the doctor, give an emetic (something which 
causes vomiting) of two teaspoonfuls of salt or 
mustard in a cup of lukewarm water, every fifteen 
minutes for three or four doses, or give one to 
two teaspoonfuls of syrup of ipecac. A drink of 
warm water before giving the emetic will often 
make vomiting easier. Then give a dose of castor 
oil and a stimulating drink of strong coffee or 
whiskey. 

When toadstools have been mistaken for mush- 
rooms, follow the directions given for ptomaine 
poisoning. 

ALCOHOL POISONING 

If the patient has alcohol poisoning, give salt 
and warm water or mustard and warm water and 
put cold cloths on the head. 

AMMONIA POISONING 

Give vinegar or lemon juice and a dose of castor 
oil. 



IN CASE OF POISONING 169 

ARSENIC, PARIS GREEN, ROUGH ON RATS, OR OTHER 
RAT POISONS 

Give white of egg, then give two teaspoonfuls 
of salt or mustard in one cup of lukewarm water, 
every fifteen minutes until four doses have been 
given. 

CARBOLIC ACID 

Wash mouth with pure alcohol, give a quarter 
of a glass of alcohol and water, equal parts. Use 
about half of this amount for a child. In five 
minutes give two teaspoonfuls of epsom salts 
dissolved in a little water. Give raw eggs, castor 
or sweet oil, and a milk diet. 

IODINE 

Give flour or starch in water, followed by two 
teaspoonfuls of salt or mustard in a cup of warm 
water every fifteen minutes for three or four 
doses. 

LEAD POISONING 

Take white of egg or milk, followed by two 
teaspoonfuls of salt or mustard in a cup of luke- 



170 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

warm water every fifteen minutes for three or four 
doses and then give two tablespoonfuls of epsom 
salts dissolved in a little soda water. 

LIME, LYE, OR POTASH 

Give vinegar or lemon juice, followed by a dose 
of castor oil. 

BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY, CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE, 
AND CALOMEL 

Give white of egg, followed by two teaspoonfuls 
of salt or mustard in a cup of lukewarm water 
every fifteen minutes for three or four doses. 

MORPHINE, OPIUM, OR STRYCHNINE 

Give two teaspoonfuls of salt or mustard in a 
cup of lukewarm water and give drinks of luke- 
warm water. Repeat every fifteen minutes until 
the patient vomits freely. Then give strong coffee 
or other stimulant. Try to arouse the patient. 
Talk to him and slap him with a cold wet wash 
cloth or towel. This will seem cruel but he must 
be aroused. Give artificial respiration and be 
sure to keep the patient awake. 



IN CASE OF POISONING 171 

OXALIC ACID 

Take white of egg or lime water, followed by 
aromatic spirits of ammonia and frequent drinks 
of baking soda, one teaspoonful to a glass. 

PHENACETINE OR HEADACHE POWDER 

Take two teaspoonfuls of salt or mustard in a 
cup of warm water every fifteen minutes until the 
patient vomits. The patient must lie down and 
have stimulating drinks, hot water bags and if 
necessary artificial respiration. 



HOMEMADE ARTICLES 

HOW TO MAKE A BEDPAN 

If a bedpan cannot be obtained, take a shallow 
wooden box, twelve inches wide, eighteen inches 
long and three or three and one half inches high. 
Saw down the sides of the box six inches from the 
end, remove the longest side pieces and the end. 
Take the side pieces which you have just removed 
and nail these on top of the side pieces remaining 
on the box, thus making a cover. Tack a cleat of 
wood on the bottom of the box even with the 
edge of the cover. Put in place a ten-cent wash 
basin or tin pan and you will have a good bed- 
pan, which can be used for either a douche or a 
bedpan. 

This can be scrubbed and put in the sun if 
soiled. A thick towel must be folded and laid 
across the top where the hips rest. If the bed- 
pan tires the patient, place a small pillow under 
the back, close to the box. The cleat is to keep 

172 



: t 
















i^^r 


II 




'/'I 

! 



Frame for Homemade Bedpan Made from a Shallow Box 




The Frame with Pan and Towel in Place 



HOMEMADE ARTICLES 173 

the basin from sliding under the top when the 
patient is using it, as the weight of the patient 
will tip the box. 

A SUBSTITUTE FOR A RUBBER SHEET 

If you have no rubber sheet, make a protection 
for your bed with a table oilcloth, or flour sacks, 
or newspapers. If you use paper tack on a 
smooth thick layer of cotton and cover it with a 
piece of muslin or cheesecloth, making a thick 
pad. This can be placed under the drawsheet 
and will be a great protection. If the patient is 
unconscious or the bowels move without warning, 
it is well to keep such a pad under the hips. It 
will save moving the patient about to change the 
sheet and also saves laundry. If this pad becomes 
wet it must be burned. Always have an extra 
one on hand. 

A BED TABLE 

When lying in bed it is very hard to feed oneself 
from a tray placed on a table or chair by the side 
of the bed. It is one sided and awkward and the 
food is often spilled on both the patient and the 



174 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

bed. Take a wooden box, ten or twelve inches 
high, two feet long, one foot or more wide. Knock 
off the sides of the box, leaving a Httle table. 

If the end boards are thick it will be strong 
enough: if not, nail on little braces. 

An orange crate has been found satisfactory for 
this kind of a table. 

Spread a towel on this table and set it over your 
patient's lap. She will be able to eat or write with 
great comfort. 

A BOOK REST 

If your patient wishes to read, she will find 
holding a book very tiresome for weak hands and 
arms. Take pieces eight inches wide, from the 
sides of the box from which you made your table, 
nail them together at right angles like this: 

then nail a strip, a couple of inches wide 



on the edge of one piece, like this: 



and 



you have a book rest. Place on the little table 

like this: 




^^^■■■■■■■■■■■■■■H! 




An Ice Cap AIade from Table Oilcloth 

Ring AIade of Absorbent Cotton and Wound 
WITH Bandages or Strips of Cloth 




An Easy Way to Shade the Light 

[Page 17] 



HOMEMADE ARTICLES 175 

Fasten a screw eye on the back of the table and 
a hook like those used on screen doors to the back 
of the book rest. This will keep the rest in 
place, and make a strong support for books or 
magazines. 

AN ICE CAP 

When an ice cap is needed and one is not near 
a drug store or for any reason cannot get one, 
you may be able to get a bladder from the market. 
Clean this thoroughly and it will make a very good 
ice cap. If you do not care to use the bladder 
and you have a table oilcloth, cut a piece of this 
about eighteen inches square. Break the ice in 
pieces about the size of an English walnut. Two 
teacupfuls of ice is enough. If there is too 
much the bag will be heavy and full and will 
not fit over the head or inflamed place. Put the 
ice in the center of the oilcloth, the rubber side 
inside, lay a ring of absorbent cotton about the 
thickness of your thumb around the ice, and also 
a piece on top. This will absorb the water as the 
ice melts and keep the patient dry. The top of 
the bag should be tight. Gather up the edges of 
the oilcloth and tie a strong string around the bag 
below your hand, keeping the bag soft and flat. 



176 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

ODDS AND ENDS 

Paper straws from a soda fountain or wheat 
straws from the barn do very well in place of 

glass drinking tubes. 

A little cream jug with a long spout can be used 
for a drinking cup. 

A bag of clean sand will do for a hot-water bag 
and will remain hot a long time. Use strong 
muslin for the bag and fill it only half full. Heat 
this in the oven or near the stove. Have two 
bags. One can be heating while the other is in 
use. This is more convenient to use during the 
night than jars of water. 

When pillows are few, make a homemade knee 
rest. Make with three boards, two feet long and 
one foot wide. Lay a thin pillow or folded quilt 
over this. 

The lamp shade must not be made of paper 
as it might burn. Use a piece of tin and a wire 
hairpin. 

A straight-legged chair turned upside down, 
with a pillow or two, makes a comfortable rest 
for the back when your patient sits up in bed. 




If you have Few Pillows Make a Knee Rest from a Box 




Cradle for Broken Leg, Made from a Hat Box. Small 
Ring under Heel 



HOMEMADE ARTICLES 177 

Barrel hoops cut in half and fastened together 
with pieces of lath or little boards, will keep the 
bed clothing from being heavy over a broken leg. 

A square cardboard hat box will answer the 
same purpose. Cut openings in opposite sides of 
the box, large enough to set over the leg. I 
made one like this for a little girl and printed the 
name "Fido, '* over the opening. We played 
that her broken leg was Fido, and that he must 
stay in his house for some time. When the leg 
ached she said Fido was growling. Sometimes 
it ached so hard she had to bark for him. 

A very nice way to carry offerings to a sick 

person is on a little paper or wooden plate, covered 

with a paper doily. Then if it is a busy household, 

the plates need not be returned. 
la 



NUISANCES 

It is not good housekeeping to have rats and 
mice in your house; neither is it sanitary. Who 
would allow the horse, cow, or dog to walk about 
on the pantry shelves, and yet without doubt 
they would not have walked in the filthy places 
through which mice and rats scamper. Rats 
and mice can always be disposed of, if gone after 
systematically. After running through all kinds 
of filthy places, they hold family picnics 
on your pantry shelves or in the cupboard, 
gnawing yotu* food and contaminating your house. 
Make it a rule never to leave things which will 
attract them. Anything good for food should be 
covered or protected and anything not fit for 
food has no right to a place in your pantry or cellar. 
Put it in the garbage can and see that the cover 
fits tightly. 

Save all your old newspapers to be used for a 
lining for the garbage can. Then, when the can is 
empty, it is a very easy matter to clean it with 
some disinfectant and hot water. 

178 



NUISANCES 179 

If you poison rats, put the poison out of doors. 
Make holes in the sides of a box, near the top. 
The holes must be large enough for rats to go 
through. Spread poison on bread or any food 
which you think they will eat. Put the bread 
on the ground and turn the box over it, upside 
down. Lay a heavy stone on the box so nothing 
can push it over. Then the chickens, dog, or 
children will not be poisoned. 

Roaches are as bad as mice, playing tag over 
your kitchen tables and sink, leaving germs of all 
kinds from those regions of darkness to which they 
make off in a hurry when you appear. Powdered 
sugar and borax in equal parts, scattered over the 
table and sink or wherever they come, is a great 
discourager and a refreshment which is not at all 
healthy for them. The table and sink must be 
thoroughly dried and no water left where they can 
get at it. 

Sometimes in crowded street cars, trains, or at 
the movies, one carries home more than he started 
out with. In other words a bed bug. You may be 
fortunate enough to catch this little, round smelly 
party before she has begun to raise a family in 
your house and then again you may not. One of 
the children will announce that he has a mosquito 



i8o THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

bite and your trouble has begun. Hunt through 
the beds carefully and you may be able to catch 
them all. With an old atomizer or a little 
garden spray used to kill lice and bugs on the 
plants, you can spray your bed. The fine spray 
will enter the smallest crack. Use corrosive 
sublimate; strength, one part of corrosive subli- 
mate to one thousand parts water. The druggist 
will tell you how to make it. As soon as you 
finish spraying, put the things where the children 
cannot get them, for they will want to play with 
the spray. After the bugs are all gone, do not 
keep the poison which remains. Pour it into the 
water-closet where nothing can get at it. Gasoline 
can be used as a spray but it must not be used in 
the house for fear of fire. 

Ever^'one knows nowadays that no matter 
how much we dislike the mosquito, we do not hate 
him half enough. He is a pirate, a traitor of the 
worst kind. He comes singing around in a casual 
way and the moment we are off our guard, he 
gives us a nip. He takes our blood to fill his own 
body but always gives us something in return — 
yellow fever and malaria — to say nothing of the 
irritating lump which itches and itches and keeps 
us angry and busy for some time. Screen your 



NUISANCES i8i 

house carefully. If you cannot have wire screens, 
buy mosquito netting by the yard at the depart- 
ment store. Buy black netting, and if it is neatly 
stretched on a frame or on the outside of the 
window, it closely resembles wire netting. Get 
the finest mesh to be had and tack it over the 
entire window frame; otherwise the mosquito 
will manage to get in between the sashes when the 
window is raised if there is the smallest crack. 
If one does get in, catch him. Choose a stick 
which will reach to the ceiling and tie a tin cup 
to the end. In the cup, put a little kerosene oil 
and strong camphor, or oil of lavender with alcohol. 
Hold the cup under the mosquito. The fumes of 
the kerosene will stupify the gentleman and he 
will fall into the cup. This is a cleaner way than 
smashing him on the wall paper and making an 
unsightly spot. Have no pails, pans, or tubs 
with water in them, standing around your yard. 
These are the home, sweet home of the mosquito. 
Pick up everything which may hold water after a 
rain and dispose of it. Quite a flourishing colony 
of mosquitoes might breed in an old tomato can 
thrown out and forgotten. Filled with rain 
and warmed by the sun, even an old tomato ^an 
has its possibilities for harm. 



i82 THE BOOK OF HOIvIE NURSING 

Some day your daughter will come home from 
school and say, "Teacher said, 'ask your mothers 
to comb your hair.'" You may find game when 
you go on this hunting expedition and you may 
not. If you do, rub kerosene oil and olive oil, in 
equal parts, into the hair and scalp, or if you are 
near a drug store, a pleasanter remedy is an 
alcoholic solution of larkspur Wet the hair with 
this and tie up overnight in a towel or cloth. 
Comb every day with a fine-toothed comb to be 
sure they are aU gone. Repeat the treatment if 
necessary. Warm vinegar will remove the nits or 
eggs, then wash the hair with warm soap and 
water. It is no disgrace to get these little pests. 
The only disgrace is in harboring them. Almost 
all children, especially girls with long hair, have 
them sometime during their school days and 
many of us can remember how our scalps smarted 
from the vigorous treatment given by our mothers, 
and also the firm, tight braids looped back of 
each ear, worn that way to guard against further 
contamination. 



KEEPING WELL 

Your happiness, the happiness of the family, 
and your ability to do your work, depend upon 
your health. If you have fresh air and sunshine, 
your food may be very simple if well cooked. 
Each time you breathe you throw off waste 
material from the body and poison the air. So 
have plenty of fresh air and do not breathe over 
and over again the air in a room which is tightly 
closed. You have been many times in halls, 
theaters, or churches where the air was heavy 
and bad and you remember what a relief it was 
to get out of doors and draw a long breath. The 
clean air in that room had been exhausted by the 
many people breathing it and only the dirty 
heavy air filled with the cast-off material from 
so many bodies was left. Make it a rule to air all 
of your rooms often and always sleep with your 
bedroom windows open. 

In Russia I am told the people seal their windows 
in winter to keep out the cold, so of course they 

183 



i84 THE BOOK OP HOME NURSING 

must keep in the bad air. We will go to Russia 
in the summer. Many trained nurses tell of 
houses where the bedroom windows are nailed 
down. Someone has said, the reason there is 
so much fresh air in the country, is because the 
farmers have all the bad air in their bedrooms. 
But the farmers are not the only foolish ones 
and they have the advantage of plenty of fresh 
air in the day time. Many people do not realize 
that it is just as bad for one's health and, to an 
enlightened person, just as repulsive to breathe 
foul air as it would be to eat from a garbage can. 

Do not wear heavy underclothing. Two thin 
garments are warmer than one heavy one. Some- 
times one sees woolen underclothes, which are 
as thick as boards and about as porous. It has 
been discovered in this generation, that large 
mesh underclothing is enough for winter and 
people who have worn heavy woolen underclothes 
every winter for years, are perfectly comfortable 
with the thinner ones through which the air can 
circulate. Take more baths and wear less clothing. 

Keep your house 68° to 70° F. Have you never 
heard people say, "The room is so hot, it makes 
me sleepy." This person was not sleepy, he was 
just being poisoned by air, which had been heated 



KEEPING WELL 185 

and breathed too much. People who live in such 
an atmosphere are always catching cold and 
calling the doctor. They catch cold because 
their vitality is low, made weak by the bad, hot 
air, therefore the first hvely germ which they 
meet is stronger than they and they get the worst 
of the fight. Well people do not take colds or 
other diseases as easily as those who have become 
weakened and in condition where they are not 
able to fight back when a germ tries to get them. 

This is a true conversation which took place 
one morning in October. 

Old Patient: ^'Good-morning doctor, how is 
business?'* 

Doctor: "Poor, poor, nothing doing. But you 
just wait until next month, when people shut up 
their houses and stir up their fires, and I will be 
busy night and day." 

Consumptives in sanitariums are made to sleep 
out of doors. Sometimes it is so cold they must 
have sleeping-bags and hot-water bottles and the 
nurse goes about from one patient to another to be 
sure no one's nose freezes. If so much fresh, cold 
air will cure a sick person is there any good reason 
for thinking the same treatment will not keep him 
well? 



i86 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Sleep Is nature's greatest builder. The tiny 
baby who sleeps most of the time is growing, 
being built into a man by sleep which lays cell 
upon cell in all parts of the little body to build the 
house of his soul, just as the mason lays brick upon 
brick to build the walls of the house for his body. 

Sleep is a healer as well. It heals and rests 
tired bodies and minds. You remember how 
you have gone to bed at night troubled by some- 
thing almost too hard to bear, and how in the 
morning you felt able to meet it. It was not 
because of the sunlight, as many people think, 
but because your tired brain had been healed and 
rested by sleep and a rested brain is able to see a 
way out of difficulties which a tired one would 
never find. The same way with your body. If 
you are tired or sleepy and feel you need sleep, 
sleep as long as you can. Be sure the sleepy 
feeling is not caused by bad air or by constipation, 
but with your windows wide open, sleep until 
you can sleep no longer. You are not lazy and 
your body would not demand this sleep if it were 
not needed. Not everyone can take the time for 
extra sleep, but if you can, try to regard it in the 
same way you would a tonic. No one would 
think of calling you lazy if you had a bottle of 



KEEPING WELL 187 

beef, iron, and wine and took it religiously three 
times a day, but I heard a druggist say that 
particular medicine was just about as efficient as 
so much canal water. 

Sleep is considered better than medicine many 
times for sick people and it is a wonderful doctor. 
What you might call a beauty doctor. So consider 
the little extra naps as doses of a tonic which will 
do you more good than drugs. Women need more 
sleep than men, and children need most of all. 
It is as silly to limit the hours of sleep as to limit 
the number of your baths or the amount of nourish- 
ing food. If you send your children away to 
school, find one where long hours for sleep are 
given. Early rising for children and young peo- 
ple when still sleepy is not what the old rhyme 
says. It may make some wealthy, but it will be 
at the cost of their health and show lack of wisdom, 
on the part of their parents. If children go to 
bed at a reasonable hour they will not want to 
stay in bed in the morning after the needed rest 
is gained. If you want John to get up and fill 
the wood-box, bring coal from the cellar, or sweep 
the walk before breakfast tell him so and see that 
he goes to bed in time to get plenty of sleep, 
but do not call up the stairs and in a goody, goody 



i88 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

voice say, ** Hurry John, the early bird gets the 
worm." No wonder John will growl and say, 
** Serves the old w^orm right. He needn't have 
gone out so early." 

Sleep to do any good must be natural and 
refreshing with plenty of fresh air. A stupor 
induced by drugs will not do. Often a walk 
just before bedtime will induce sleep, a bath, a 
glass of hot milk or hot lemonade and a cracker, or 
reading, not a blood-and-thunder tale or some 
yam of detective prowess or mystery, but a 
comfortable little story which takes your mind 
from yourself and yet does not put your mind in a 
stew which lasts after you get in bed. And by 
the way, have as comfortable a bed as you can 
afford. Do not spend money, if you have little 
to spend, on a gay shiny brass bed or a beautifully 
grained mahogany one and scrimp on your mat- 
tress. Buy an iron bed painted w^hite, good woven 
wire springs, and a comfortable mattress. Many 
people have a superstition that a hair mattress 
is the only thing to sleep on and be comfortable, 
but there are many mattresses which are luxuri- 
ously comfortable and have not one hair in them. 
You could buy two or three of these for what 
you would pay for one of hair. 



KEEPING WELL 189 

Put a quilted pad over the mattress or a pad 
made of cotton and covered with cheesecloth and 
quilted or tied like a comfortable. If tied closely 
this can be washed without being lumpy. Then 
put on your under sheet and make your bed 
tight and smooth as directed in making beds for 
sick people, and you will sleep like a prince and 
be fit as a fiddle in the morning. 

Take a bath every day if you can manage it. 
You will feel like the king of a happy country or 
a Democratic alderman in a Tammany District, 
so much does it add to your self-respect and feeling 
of security. A man or woman either, who has a 
daily bath, will be careful about other rules of 
health. They will not be contented to be poi- 
soned by constipation, to have dirty teeth, or bad 
breath. It is one of the best of the many good 
habits to form. It need not necessarily be a 
tub bath for even yet with all our modern houses 
and sanitary arrangements, many people have no 
regular bath room. Neither must the bath be 
taken in the morning. Even in the farmhouse 
where the bedrooms are cold, one can hang a 
sheet over the clotheshorse near the kitchen stove 
and with a tin bath pan, a little tub, or even a pail 
get a very good bath. Have the tub or pail large 



190 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

enough to hold the feet and even if you are tired 
when you begin, you will be surprised to see how 
much better you will feel and how you will sleep. 
A cold sponge or shower after the bath hardens 
one and makes the skin glow. People who do 
this daily seldom have colds. Cold water does 
not seem as cold if used after a warm bath as when 
applied to the dry skin. Many people shrink 
at the thought of cold water, but revel in it after 
screwing up their courage to the "trying it" 
point. Delicate or sick people should not take 
cold baths without consulting the doctor. Keep a 
flatiron on the back of the kitchen stove in winter 
and if your bedroom is cold open the bed and 
iron the sheets with the warm iron. It takes only a 
minute. Then if you have had a nice bath and a 
rub with a rough towel, open your windows, and 
hop into your comfortable bed. Your clean skin 
glowing and your heart like a little steam engine 
will be pumping blood to all parts of your body and 
back to your lungs to be bathed in the clean air 
which you are breathing. This is the way to get 
ready for a good day's work, the way to avoid 
headaches and heavy feelings in the morning. 
If any one does this for a week, I think it would 
take a large bribe to get him to go back to sleeping 



KEEPING WELL 191 

with the register open, his window closed or only 
open a crack, and a bath on Saturday night. If you 
feel you must sleep in underclothes always have 
one suit for day and another for night. There is a 
deadly fear, a superstitious dread of baths in 
some quarters. When I politely hinted to a 
maid that she was more than welcome to use the 
tub in her bathroom, that it was there expressly 
for her comfort and convenience, I was gravely 
told that her mother had warned her not^to use 
it too often, as baths were very weakening. I 
pointed out to her the sturdy people whom we 
both knew, who took daily baths. Still the dread 
of the tub was stronger than my arguments. 
Bathing is certainly a result of education. 

You would not eat from unwashed dishes or 
with a fork which was jealously guarding between 
its tines bits of food left over from the last meal. 
You would be very much disgusted and make 
pointed remarks to the dishwasher, but is that 
any worse than having bits of food left in and 
between your teeth from one meal to the next or 
overnight. Your mouth is warm and moist and 
should be dark, therefore an ideal place for germs 
to grow. Clean your teeth regularly and if one 
shows signs of decay, go to the dentist at once. 



192 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

If the children have toothache take them to the 
dentist. Teeth do not ache for the fun of it and 
it is not entertaining for any one concerned, so go 
to the dentist whether you can afford it or not. 
You might better have fewer clothes and go to 
bed while they are being washed, than save money 
on your teeth. Bad breath because of decay, 
indigestion because the food is not well masticated, 
and many other ills, come from neglected teeth. 

Keep clean outside and in. Clean skin, clean 
teeth, and clean bowels, then your mind will 
be bright and alert, you will have the respect of 
your family, your friends, and yourself. Besides it 
is a very old saying that cleanHness is next to god- 
liness. In some places, we know it is next to 
impossible, but a clean body helps to keep a clean 
mind. Dirty people many times brace up and 
do not seem hke their old selves when once they 
are clean. A young man was brought into the 
hospital. He had been working in a very dirty 
place and had never indulged in many baths. 
After the orderly had given him a bath I washed 
his hair and cleaned his fingernails. Neither of 
these things had happened to him before in all his 
twenty years. He was a constant delight and 
source of entertainment to himself. I would see 



KEEPING WELL 193 

him feeling of his hair and inspecting his nails 
hundreds of times each day. He was so much in 
love with the improved appearance of his nails 
that he would polish and file them himself and 
displayed them to his friends who called, saying, 
' ' Look at me nails. I'm the swell I'm telling ye. " 
He enjoyed being clean so much that I had faith 
to believe that it might last after he left the 
hospital. He felt he had progressed in the social 
scale because he was clean. I know it improved 
his manners, for he began saying, '* Please" and 
*' Thank you," without prompting. Nurses in a 
busy hospital have no time, neither is it their 
duty, to scrub their patients' manners, but they 
do scrub their bodies and it seems to do for both. 

Move your bowels each day. If you have 
chronic constipation eat food which will correct it. 
Do not give up and say, "Nothing will help me," 
but keep at it, for something surely will help you. 

After the delicate and wonderful machinery 
of your body has absorbed all the strength-giving 
properties of your food, there is left in the intes- 
tines a mass of waste material which should be 
disposed of each day. You know how distressed 
you are if the garbage man fails to come and the 

garbage must be left to decay and be obnoxious 
13 



194 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

in the can until the next day for collecting comes. 
How much worse to be carrying about in your 
body a decomposing mass of waste material from 
which everything of use to you has been taken and 
which will poison you, making you stupid and 
ill. Eat relaxing foods, bran bread, graham bread, 
fruit, and vegetables and if you cannot regulate 
yourself with a diet take medicine. Something 
recommended by your doctor, not your druggist. 
The doctor knows your individual peculiarities 
and a drug which would be splendid for your father 
or your neighbor might not be at all the thing for 
you. Then take the medicine as the doctor orders. 
Many people rush to the doctor's office and get 
two or three kinds of pills and tablets. They take 
two or three doses as ordered then they skip a few 
doses and say, "I don't believe it will help me 
an3rway, what's the use of taking it." In hundreds 
of houses there are dozens of little envelopes, small 
bottles or boxes, from which only two or three 
doses have been taken. This is the worst kind 
of foolishness. For the person doing this cheats 
only himself and wastes his money. Do not go 
to the doctor unless you need his advice and then 
take what he gives you in the way he directs. 
Walking is helpful for constipation, but when you 



KEEPING WELL 195 

go out to walk do not dawdle along in a lackadaisi- 
cal way, but walk as if you were going on important 
business, with your chin up and your shoulders 
straight. 

If you live in the country and have a well, take 
care of it; that is, the well must not be where it 
can get drainage from an outside closet, a cess- 
pool, or a barnyard. Do not throw waste water 
near it. A supply of pure water is one of the 
ways of saving doctor's bills. Of course we want 
the doctors to be comfortable, but self-preserva- 
tion is the first law of nature. The people who 
neglect their health and stick to old worn-out, 
antiquated ideas of not too many baths in the 
winter, fear of airing the house because of taking 
cold, heavy thick underclothes night and day, 
letting nature take her course with constipation, 
and a sentimental regard for the ''poor little fly 
whom everyone is down on," are the ones who 
are always under the doctor's care, or should 
be. In China the doctors are paid while their 
patients are well, but in order to keep them well in 
this country the doctors would have to employ 
policemen for some families, and families who do 
not consider themselves ignorant either. 

There is an illuminating portrait of a fly in one 



196 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

of the Red Cross textbooks. He looks like a 
horse which has been walking through very deep 
sticky mud, but it is only a fly enlarged to show 
the germs on his legs. The germs v/hich he has 
collected in dirt and filth and which he leaves 
behind when he walks over the dining-room 
table, the butter, the sugar, the food being pre- 
pared in the kitchen, and on your helpless little 
baby's face. Do not have uncovered manure 
heaps, uncovered garbage cans, and unsanitary 
outside closets where he can breed and if he does 
get in see that he does not get out alive. Be 
absolutely relentless and bloodthirsty where the 
fly is concerned for he is not only a thief in the 
night but he is a spoiler by day. He deserves 
no consideration excepting that which is used 
to hasten his extermination. 

No healthy person will be in a chronic tired 
condition. If you are tired and cannot get rested 
with a reasonable amount of sleep or if you can- 
not sleep, the time has come when you had better 
see a doctor. 

There are unfortunate people who never get 
a vacation but everyone should have a regular 
rest from work and a change. It is a good thing 
sometimes to get away from your own family. 



KEEPING WELL 197 

Two ailing tired members of one family should 
not go away together. They carry their atmos- 
phere with them. Let one go east and the other 
west or the one who needs it most go, and the 
other stay at home. It will be much more of a 
benefit to both. One naturally hesitates to relate 
his aches, pains, and bad feelings to a stranger, 
while to a relative, the woes are handed over 
unsparingly. 

Many people still have the notion that it is a 
little superior not to be able to do things, that it is 
a little more refined to have a heart complication 
or something that will let you out of doing your 
share in the world, while in reality they are only 
poor stuff. If the time ever comes when it is 
popularly considered as bad to be a little ^'off " 
in the liver, as in the head, you will see the livers 
pick up and behave themselves, for they will be 
taken care of as they should be. No one would 
care to have his acquaintances shake their 
heads, raise their eyebrows, and with a shrug of 
the shoulders, say "Liver." 

Health is not only wealth, but beauty and 
happiness as well. 

All are creatures of habit either good or bad, 
pleasant or unpleasant. Smile at the world and 



198 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

you are more than likely to get a smile in return. 
Who does not return the smile of the happy, 
trusting baby? Of course we cannot go about 
the streets grinning like a Cheshire cat, but when 
the baby looks at you, smile at him. He will 
smile in return, roll over on the floor or in his crib, 
and feel happy. You can work just as fast and 
just as hard with a pleasant expression and not 
be as tired when you are through as if every nerve 
in your body was on edge, and your face all 
screwed into wrinkles. Smile at the children and 
at your husband and see that they smile at you. 

A family can just as well cultivate a cheerful 
atmosphere as a cold unhappy one and everybody's 
digestion will be better for it. Tell funny stories 
at the table and laugh all you can. Do not allow 
unpleasant family affairs to be discussed at the 
table or before the children. If one of the children 
needs scolding, do it after dinner and not before 
the others. If you wait until after dinner you 
may change your mind, and not scold at all. 
Don't talk about the cost of butter. Put what 
you can afford on the table and say, "This is all 
the butter we can have for this meal," and let 
it go at that. Do not lay grown-up troubles on 
children. They carry unpleasant things in their 



KEEPING WELL 199 

minds long after you have forgotten all about it. 
Do not get so tired cooking a big dinner, that you 
cannot enjoy it yourself or let the others do so. 
The mother of the family should be selfish enough 
to look out a little for herself. The wise Psalmist 
said, "Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than 
a stalled ox and hatred therewith." In our day 
he would say, "Better a supper of mush and milk 
and happiness, than a mother cross and tired and 
a dinner of biscuits and fried chicken." 

Cultivate a sense of proportion. You should 
weep for the death of one whom you love, but 
only a foolish person and one who does not under- 
stand true values in this world will cry over broken 
china, torn clothes, or spilled milk. No one breaks 
dishes out of pure "cussedness," so if daughter 
breaks one, when washing them, don't scold and 
make her feel she has broken all the ten com- 
mandments as well as the old teacup, but tell her 
that dishes are expensive and request her to be 
careful. She will nine times out of ten be more 
sorry than if scolded soundly. 

If you find your nerves are all coming to the 
surface and feel as if you would have to slap some- 
one to reHeve yourself, don't call Johnnie in and 
vent it on him, but go in your bedroom and with 



200 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the windows open, lie flat on your back ten 
minutes, if you cannot stay longer, and relax your 
muscles. Not everyone knows how to relax. 
Do not lie on your back with your eyes closed 
tightly, your teeth gripped together, and your 
face worried, but begin at your head and tell 
it to rest. Let go all your muscles one at a time; 
don't laugh at this, try it. You may not do this 
the first time, but you will after a while. Let 
your arms lie at your sides, not rigid, but let them 
lie heavy on the bed, and all your body the same, 
and no matter how unpleasant you feel, look 
pleasant. Smile to yourself; try it. None of the 
children or family must come in while 'you are 
having this little rest. It is yours for yourself 
and must be respected. 

Dirt of one kind or another is responsible for 
most of our ills. Dirty food, dirty milk caused 
by dirty cows and slovenly milkers, dirt in the 
water and in the air. Have screens in the kitchen 
windows and doors, scald the bread-box and dry it 
in the sun. Never leave decaying fruit or vege- 
tables in the cellar. Clean it well and whitewash 
it early every spring. When buying fish or meat, 
use your nose as well as your eyes and if your nose, 
like a railroad-crossing sign, shouts '* danger, bad 



KEEPING WELL 201 

smell, " go to another market or cook eggs. Wash 
the pretty red apple before you give it to your 
little girl. The apple is good for her but the germs 
which are on the outside are not. Use the apple 
to nourish the child and not the child to nourish 
the germs. 

The windows closed, a heated room, 

Red flannel in array, 
**That snuffy child," the walrus said, 

"Has been in doors all day." 
"How sad, " remarked the carpenter, 

"So many do that way." 



DIET FOR CHILDREN 

One time in the middle of the winter, I visited 
my friend, Miss Emma McGall, who was, at that 
time, superintendent of the Orthopedic Hospital 
of Orange, New Jersey. The little crippled 
children under her care, had not been out of doors 
for many weeks. Remembering the thin, pitiful, 
little people whom I had seen in hospitals, I almost 
dreaded meeting them. After breakfast, I was 
taken to the nursery dining-room by the proud 
foster-mother-superintendent. She was greeted 
with shouts and one tiny chap even called her, 
** mother." A poor little Italian, with crooked 
legs, raised his dark eyes to her face, patted her 
hand, and said, "I have a like." In spite of the 
crooked legs and backs, the club feet, and other 
deformities, they were as rosy and happy as any 
other family of children. "How do you keep 
them so well?" I asked. ''By giving them proper 
food, and keeping them busy, " she replied. 

The little cripples who were fastened on 

202 



DIET FOR CHILDREN 203 

frames, in order that their poor crooked bodies 
might grow straight, had Httle lessons each day. 
They wove baskets, sewed, and learned to do 
many things and were kept happy by the wise 
woman who, like a fairy god-mother in a white 
gown, went in and out and up and down stairs 
a hundred times each day, directing, nursing, 
comforting, and looking after the food, which is 
such an important item in the well-being of healthy 
children who can be out of doors each day, and 
doubly so in the case of little cripples who must be 
carried out, even in the summer. I knew a diet 
which would give firm flesh and rosy cheeks to 
crippled children would surely do as much for 
those whose legs could carry them about, so I 
asked Miss McGall for her diet Hst. This is what 
she said. ''Give them plenty of orange juice; 
also give nuts, raisins, bran bread, figs, dates, and 
honey.'* 

MEALS FOR THREE DAYS 

Breakfast Dinner Supper 

Stewed prunes Boiled chicken Milk toast 

Cream farina Mashed potatoes Baked apple 

Boiled eggs Creamed string beans 

Cocoa Bread and butter 

Chocolate corn starch desert 



204 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 



Breakfast 

Oranges 
Hominy 
Scrambled eggs 

Milk 



Apple sauce 
Oatmeal 
Poached eggs 
Milk 



Dinner 

Lamb chops 

Baked potatoes 

Spinach 

Bread and butter 

Baked tapioca with jelly 

Broiled steak 

Mashed potatoes 

Peas 

Bread and butter 

Baked apple 



Supper 

Boiled rice with 
thin cream and 
sugar 

Stewed peaches 



Celery soup 
Bread and butter 
Jam 



MEALS FOR ONE WEEK 



SUNDAY 



Cream of wheat Boiled chicken 
Bread and butter Mashed potatoes 
Scrambled eggs Creamed onions 
Milk Chocolate pudding 



Toast and milk 
Jelly or fruit 



MONDAY 



Oatmeal Lamb stew and bread 

Boiled eggs Cnmib pudding 

Milk Mashed potatoes 

Bread and butter Creamed turnips 

Baked apple and cream 



Hot milk and toast 
Prunes 



TUESDAY 



Oatmeal Beef stew Boiled rice and 

Boiled eggs Potatoes milk 

Milk Bread and butter Bread and butter 

Bread and butter Cornstarch pudding with Fruit 
fruit sauce 



DIET FOR CHILDREN 



205 



WEDNESDAY 

Breakfast Dinner Supper 

Hominy Roast beef Bread and butter 

Scrambled eggs Mashed potatoes Sauce or fruit 

Bread and butter Creamed carrots Milk 
Milk Jelly 



THURSDAY 

Cream of wheat Roast lamb 
Boiled eggs Baked potatoes 

Bread and butter Spinach 
Milk Bread and butter 

Baked custard and peack 



Toast and milk 
Animal crackers 
Jelly 



FRIDAY 



Hominy 
Graham toast 
Boiled eggs 
Milk 



Lamb stew 
Potatoes 

Baked lemon pudding 
with fruit sauce 



Toast 
Cocoa 
Crackers 
Jelly or fruit 



SATURDAY 

Oatmeal Broiled steak Bread and butter 

Eggs Boiled rice in peppers Milk 

Bread and butter Baked apple Crackers and fruit 



WHAT TO FEED YOUR PATIENT 

In the hospital where I was trained years ago 
there was no shining diet kitchen, no place where 
nurses might weigh and measure, cook and serve 
for their patients, but the senior class was mar- 
shalled, periodically, by Sister Alexia, to the 
hospital kitchen, where we cooked on the great 
range^ and mixed and brewed at the long table. 
These cooking classes were always considered a 
lark. They were held in the evening after the 
supper work was done and had a little of the 
spirit of adventure, for none of us cared to ven- 
ture to the kitchen during the day. At that time 
it was under the rule of the fat but none too 
amiable cook, Julia. How clean and shining 
everything was in the big kitchen and how we 
all loved dear Sister Alexia! She was an ideal 
cooking teacher, for, while we must learn all about 
gruels and other foods which had nourishment for 
their only recommendation, still we were obliged 

206 



WHAT TO FEED YOUR PATIENT 207 

to make only a little of these uninteresting dishes, 
while if any really good things were being cooked, 
there was enough made so all might taste, and 
best of all, someone was taught to make ice cream 
at each lesson. 

Sister Alexia taught from the Invalid Cookery 
Book of the Boston Cooking School, using many 
of the rules which are given here. 

Preparation of food is a most important part 
in the care of an invalid. The proper kind and 
amount of food gives strength and helps greatly 
the recovery of your patient, while too much food, 
or the wrong kind of food will, many times, cause 
relapse and sometimes death. 

Diets for ordinary cases are of three kinds — ^liq- 
uid, light, and convalescent. When a patient is 
having what is called a regular diet it is best to be 
careful and give a convalescent diet, for many foods 
are hard to digest and should not be given to a 
person who must stay in bed. 

If a member of the family is sick give milk, 
broth, or gruel but no solid food until the doctor 
has seen your patient and ordered a diet for 
him. 

Food must not only be nourishing but should 
taste good and look attractive. Do not forget 



2o8 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the tiny pinch of salt in the gruel or beef tea; do 
not butter the toast in the center and leave the 
crust without butter. Toast is much daintier if 
the crusts are removed before toasting. A small 
leaf of lettuce, a nasturtium leaf or a thin slice of 
lemon add to the attractiveness of the tray dinner 
and make it more appetizing. Have as great a 
variety as your purse and your doctor will allow. 
Taste the food you give your patient but not with 
his fork or spoon. 

When serving cold drinks or cold liquid food, 
carry it to your patient in a glass set on a plate- 
use a cup and saucer for hot drinks or hot Hquid 
food. The patient will take the gruel much hotter 
if given a spoon to sip the first mouthfuls. Place 
the spoon on the plate or saucer, not in the glass or 
cup, when carrying to your patient. A small 
tray is convenient. If you are serving a glass of 
eggnog, place the glass on the tray with a glass 
of cold water and a spoon. If your patient does 
not drink from a glass, take in place of the spoon 
a drinking cup, a glass tube, or a straw. Always 
give a drink of cold water after serving eggnog, 
milk, cocoa, beef tea, etc., as the mouth becomes 
very "bad tasting'* and unpleasant, especially 
in fevers. 



WHAT TO FEED YOUR PATIENT 209 

DRINKS FOR SPECIAL CASES 

Barley Water. Look over carefully and soak 
overnight or for several hours, i>^ table- 
spoons barley. Add to i quart cold water 
and boil for i>^ hours. Strain and add 
salt, lemon juice, and sugar, or cream in place 
of lemon juice. Serve hot. This drink is 
NUTRITIOUS. May be given with milk. 

Rice Water. Cook i tablespoon of rice in i pint 
of cold water until the rice is very soft. 
Strain and thin with milk to make a nice 
drink, season with salt, and serve hot. This 
can be used for diarrhoea. A small piece of 
cinnamon boiled with the rice will add to the 
medicinal value. 

Oatmeal Water. Add i cup fine oatmeal to 2 
quarts of water which has been boiled and 
cooled. Put this in a warm place (shelf over 
the top of cook stove, over a radiator or 
register) for 1% hours. Strain and cool. 
Useful for constipation. May be given 
with milk. 

Apple Water. Pare and core i large sour apple, 

put I teaspoon of sugar in the cavity and 
14 



210 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

bake until very soft, pour water over it, and 
let stand for a half- hour, then strain. This 
may be given to patients having great thirst 

or for CONSTIPATION. 

Flaxseed Lemonade. Look over i tablespoon 
whole flaxseed, taking care to remove the 
black grains. Pour over this i pint of 
boiling water and boil for i hour. Strain and 
add sugar and lemon juice to taste. Serve 
either hot or cold. This is used in case of 

CROUP, or IRRITATION OF THROAT. 

Cocoa Cordial. Mix i teaspoon of cocoa and 
I teaspoon of sugar. Have ready yi cup 
boiling water. Add enough water to the 
cocoa to form a paste, then stir in remainder 
of water and boil i minute. Add lyi table- 
spoons of port wine. Use this in case of 

CHILL, exposure, Or EXHAUSTION. 

Toast Water. Toast 2 or 3 slices of old bread 
slowly and quite brown but not burned. 
Break in pieces and cover with I pint of cold 
water, let stand i hour, then strain, pressing 
the water out of the toast with a spoon. 



WHAT TO FEED YOUR PATIENT 211 

Add a pinch of salt and cream, sugar if 
desired. Serve cold. Good in case of weak 

STOMACH or DIARRHOEA. 

Coffee. Strong hot coffee is stimulating and 
INVIGORATING and should be given after 
EXPOSURE, FATIGUE, and after many cases of 

POISONING. 

Tea. Tea is a refreshing and invigorating 
drink and if made properly will not injure 
your patient. The best way to make an 
individual cup of tea is with a tea ball or 
small strainer. Pour hot water in the cup 
until the cup is hot. Empty this and fill 
the cup with freshly boiled water, immerse 
the tea ball or strainer containing tea until 
you have the desired strength. If served in 
the afternoon with a cracker, your patient 
may like a slice of lemon or orange in place of 
cream. It would be a good plan to make 
a small pot of tea and drink a cup yourself. 
Sit in a comfortable chair while you drink it 
and you may feel rested and refreshed as well 
as your patient, never boil tea. Always 
use an earthen ware, silver or granite ware 



212 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

teapot. Scald the teapot with boiling water, 
empty, put in tea, and pour over it boiling 
water which is freshly boiled, not water which 
is in the tea kettle and warmed over. Let 
stand iintil the tea is the desired strength. 
The tea cosy so much used in England is the 
ideal arrangement for keeping tea hot while 
brewing. Both tea and coffee pots should 
be carefully washed, the spouts cleaned with a 
brush, and thoroughly dried. Scald at times 
with boiling water and baking soda. Many 
times, bad-tasting tea or coffee is due to 
improperly washed pots and not to the 
quality of tea and coffee purchased. 

Gum Arabic Water. Dissolve i ounce of gum 
arable in i pint of boiling water. Add 2 
teaspoonfuls of sugar and a wine glass of 
sherry or the juice of i lemon. This is used 
for cases of poisoning. 

Lime Water. To 2 quarts of water add a lump 
of Hme the size of an egg. Let stand a half- 
hour then stir and let settle again. Pour 
off water into a bottle carefully and cork. 
Used many times in milk for infants and 
invalids. 



WHAT TO FEED YOUR PATIENT 213 

Albumen Water. One glass of cold water and 
white of I egg. Place in glass fruit jar 
and shake gently until egg and water are 
thoroughly mixed. Add salt or sugar to 
taste. This is nutritious. 

Hot Lemonade. Mix 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and i 
tablespoon whiskey. Add I cup boiling 
water. This is to^be served at bedtime with a 
cathartic for a cold. This will be nourishing 
if made with rice or barley water. 

Hot Lemonade with Glycerine. To hot lemon- 
ade add I tablespoon of glycerine. Use this 
for people who do not like to take cathartics. 
The glycerine will act as a cathartic and can 
not be tasted in the lemonade. (The patient 
need not be told about the glycerine.) For 
colds. 



LIQUID DIET 

When your patient is on a liquid diet you will 
give nourishment every two hours unless other- 
wise ordered by the doctor. Use less salt, sugar, 
or other seasoning of any kind, in food for sick 
people, adding a little more if needed after the 
patient has tasted. Do not serve the food without 
seasoning as the first swallow might be distasteful, 
causing the patient to think he does not care 
for that particular food, and limiting your menu. 
When giving liquid nourishment during the night 
use milk, broth, cocoa, eggnog flavored with 
vanilla or nutmeg, and avoid tea, coffee, or drinks 
containing wine, brandy, or stimulants, as these 
will usually cause wakefulness. When the patient 
needs a stimulant at night, it is ordered by the 
doctor, but in that case, stimulation is more 
important than sleep. 

Quite a variety of nourishing foods can be 
given in liquid form. Milk is the most perfect 
liquid food but as sick persons become tired of one 

214 



LIQUID DIET 215 

thing, it is always best to give a variety. You 
can give milk every second or third time and at 
other times give broth, gruel, egg lemonade, 
or one of the liquid foods given below. By 
having a variety in the beginning, your patient 
will not tire of one food, and your task will be 
much easier. 

You may give broths, gruels, milk, and drinks 
made with milk, soups made with milk, and 
strained, cooling and refreshing drinks made with 
fruit juices, gelatin jellies, and frozen liquids which 
will be greatly appreciated by fever patients and 
people who are sick in hot weather; frozen 
beef tea or beef juice, whipped cream, frozen egg- 
nog, clam juice, vanilla or chocolate ice cream 
(not very sweet), and orange or lemon ice. There 
are tiny freezers which hold enough for one person 
but if you do not possess one of these, try a large 
baking-powder can. Place this in a small pail of 
ice and salt (in winter use snow and salt). Open 
frequently and stir well while freezing. Ehis 
answers very nicely. 

LEMONADE MADE WITH SYRUP 

Make a syrup by boiling i cup of water and i cup 
of sugar for 12 minutes. Cool and cover to be 



w 



2i6 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

used again. To 2 tablespoons of syrup use i 
tablespoon of lemon juice and ^ cup of cold water. 
If syrup is used there will be no sugar settled in the 
bottom of the glass to make the last swallows too 
sweet. A leaf of mint or a slice of lemon or 
orange adds to the attractiveness. This will be 
nourishing as well as refreshing if made with 
albuminized water in place of plain cold water. 

ORANGEADE 

Juice of I orange, i}4 tablespoons of syrup, i 
tablespoon crushed ice. Add syrup to orange 
juice and pour over ice. Less syrup will be needed 
if orange is sweet. 

CURRANT OR GRAPE JELLY WATER 

To 2 tablespoons of currant juice or 2 table- 
spoons of currant or grape jelly add % cup cold 
water and season to taste with syrup. Stir jelly 
with a fork before adding water; it will mix more 
easily. 

GRAPE JUICE 

Wash and remove stems from i}^ cups of ripe 
grapes, add i cup of cold water, and cook in a 



LIQUID DIET 217 

double boiler until the juice is extracted. Strain 
through a sieve, add % cup sugar, and return to 
the fire until the sugar is dissolved. Pour through 
a soft cloth which has been rung out of cold water. 
Chill and serve. If too strong, add a little water 
and a little lemon juice if desired. 

TEA AND COFFEE 

Tea and coffee may be served hot or iced with 
meals or as a stimulating drink between meals. 
When given as a nourishment cream should be 
added. Iced coffee should be seasoned the same 
as hot coffee but when iced tea is used to quench 
thirst, add a slice of lemon. 

COCOA 

Mix together 2 teaspoons of cocoa and i of 
sugar, add slowly % cup boiling water, boil 3 
minutes. Add ]A cup scalded milk and beat with 
a Dover ^gg beater to prevent formation of scum. 
Pour into a clean, warm cup. This is more 
attractive with a spoonful of whipped cream on 
top. Some people like it flavored with a drop or 
two of vanilla. 



2i8 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

EGG LEMONADE 

Break a fresh egg in a bowl and beat until the 
white and yolk are well blended. Add one glass 
cold lemonade and strain. This is nourishing and 
refreshing. 

MILK 

Milk may be given plain, with lime water, with 
AppoHnaris or Seltzer water ; it may be sterilized, 
modified, or given with sugar and wine or brandy 
as a milk punch. Buttermilk is often used. 

A glass of hot milk with a pinch of salt at bed- 
time often induces sleep. 

A glass of hot milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar 
will, many times, stop a cough. 

STERILIZED MILK 

Put milk in a fruit jar which has been washed 
with soap, rinsed carefully, and scalded. Cover 
the top with absorbent cotton, two or three 
thicknesses of cheesecloth, or a piece of old, clean 
muslin. Place on the stove in a kettle of cold 
water with a tin or tiny board under the glass jar to 
keep it from breaking. Let the water come to a 



LIQUID DIET 219 

boil and then remove the milk at once. Cool 
quickly and put on ice. Leave the cloth on the 
top of the jar. 

ALBUMINIZED MILK 

Put in a glass fruit jar the white of i egg and 
J/2 cup of milk. Shake gently until the egg and 
milk are thoroughly mixed. Season if desired 
with a pinch of salt or sugar and a drop of vanilla. 

EGGNOG 

Beat I egg until the white and yolk are well 
blended, add i tablespoon of sugar, a few grains 
of salt, % cup of milk, and 2 tablespoons of 
wine or i tablespoon of brandy. Nutmeg may 
be used in place of the wine or brandy if the 
patient does not need stimulation. 

KOUMISS 

Warm i quart of milk to blood heat and add 
ij^ tablespoons of sugar and }i oi sl yeast cake 
which has been dissolved in i tablespoon of luke- 
warm water. Fill bottles to within i >^ inches of 
top, turn upside down, keep in a warm (not hot) 
place for 6 hours. Put on ice and serve the 
following day. 



220 THE BOOK OF BO^IE XL'RSIXG 

BROTH 

Beef, chicken, lamb, or mutton broth are made 
by cutting the meat in small pieces, removing 
all skin and fat. Put, with the bones, in a stew 
pan and cover with cold water, using a pint of 
water for a pound of meat. Bring slowly to boihng 
point. Simmer for 4 hours, strain into bowl 
(not tin), and put on ice when cool. When needed 
for patient, remove all fat with a spoon. If when 
heated you see tiny globules of fat, pass a piece of 
tissue paper quickly over the top of the broth. 
In this way you can remove ever^^ particle of 
fat. The taste and smell of fat are often nauseat- 
ing to sick people. Add salt and pepper to taste 
and if a piece of celery or parsley or a leaf of any 
favorite herb is boiled with the meat, a pleasant 
variety will be obtained. Beef makes a more 
nourishing broth than veal, fowl than young 
chicken, and mutton than lamb. Dilute with 
water if too strong. 

CLAM BROTH 

Scrub clean 6 or 8 large clams. Boil in i cup 
of water. The water and the juice of the clams 
make the broth. When the shells open the broth 



LIQUID DIET 221 

is done. Remove clams and shells, add salt and 
pepper to taste. Pour in hot cup or bowl and 
place on top a spoonful of whipped cream. 
This can be served without the cream. 

OYSTER BROTH 

Chop I dozen oysters, put in a stew pan with 
I cup cold water. Bring to boiling point, then 
simmer 5 minutes. Strain and serve with whipped 
cream on top, or with milk added just before 
removing from the fire. 

BEEF EXTRACT 

One pound of round steak. Wipe and remove 
all fat. Cut in small pieces, place in a fruit jar, 
put cover on jar, and set in kettle of cold water. 
Put a tin or piece of board under the jar to prevent 
breaking. Let the water heat slowly for 2 hours 
but do not let it boil. Press the meat to obtain all 
the juice. Add salt and pepper and strain. This 
can be made in a double boiler. Do not boil when 
reheating. 

BEEF TEA 

Prepare steak the same as for beef extract. Soak 
beef in i pint of cold water for 15 minutes, then 
put steak and water in fruit jar and proceed 



EOiU 



222 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the same as in making beef extract. When serv- 
ing, heat but do not boil. 

BEEF JUICE 

One pound of round steak. Remove all fat 
and cut in small pieces. Heat a fruit press or old- 
fashioned lemon squeezer in hot water and drain. 
Put the meat in a dry pan and shake over the 
fire until hot but not cooked. Put at once into 
press. Squeeze all the juice possible. More juice 
can usually be obtained by reheating both meat 
and press and squeezing again. 

MEAT JELLIES 

Cut chicken or other meat in small pieces, 
removing fat, and breaking bones. Put in cold 
water using i pint for every pound of meat. 
Heat slowly at first, then simmer until the meat is 
done. Strain and remove the fat by passing a 
tissue paper over the surface of the liquid. Add 
salt, pepper, and lemon to taste. Pour into small 
cups to set. When serving, turn out on a lettuce 
leaf if your patient is able to feed himself with 
a spoon. The jelly on a tray with a cup of tea 
or coffee or a glass of water will seem like a real 
meal while in reality it is only liquid diet. 



GRUELS 

FLOUR GRUEL 

Two tablespoons of flour, 2 cups of milk. Mix 
flour with a little milk to make a paste. Scald 
the remainder of milk in a double boiler, add 
flour paste, and cook yi. hour. Salt to taste. 

For DIARRHCEA. 

OATMEAL GRUEL 

Coarse oatmeal yi cup, add 3 cups boiling 
water and i teaspoon of salt. Cook 3 hours in a 
double boiler, strain, and add milk or cream. 

For a LAXATIVE. 

CRACKER GRUEL 

Roll and sift ^ large cracker, have in a double 
boiler i cup scalded milk. Add cracker and cook 
for 5 minutes. Salt to taste. This is nutritious. 

INDIAN MEAL GRUEL 

Mix I tablespoon Indian meal, yi tablespoon of 
flour, add enough cold water to make a paste. 

223 



224 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Add to 2 cups of boiling water and boil gently for 
I hour. Add milk or cream and salt to taste. A 
richer gruel may be made by using milk in place 
of water and cooking 3 hours in a double boiler. 

NOURISHING. 

BARLEY GRUEL 

Mix 3 teaspoons of barley flour with cold water 
to make a thin paste. Add to i cup boiling water 
and boil 15 minutes. Add % cup milk and 
salt to taste. Reheat and strain when serving. 

NUTRITIOUS. 

Fruit jellies made with gelatin may be used 
with a liquid diet. Meat soups made with barley 
or rice, strained, and the fat removed, may be 
used. 

Thin soups made with milk seasoned with a 
vegetable or meat broth may be used, also thicker 
soups made with a white sauce. Chicken or any 
meat broth may be used in the cream soups in 
place of milk. 

WHITE SAUCE FOR CREAM SOUPS 

The amount of butter, flour, and milk will 
differ with the different kinds of soup but the white 



GRUELS 225 

sauce is always made in one way. Melt the butter, 
add the flour, stirring all the time until they are 
smooth and thick. Add the milk a little at a 
time until it is all in, stirring each time you add 
milk until the mixture is smooth. To this is added 
the special mixture and seasoning 

Z5 



SOUPS MADE WITH MILK 
From Cook Book for Nurses by Sarah C. Hill. 

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS 

White Sauce 

One tablespoon butter, i tablespoon flour, }4 cup 
milk. 

Eight stalks of canned asparagus, drain from 
liquor, add >2 cup fresh water. Heat thoroughly 
and press out all juice. Add to the white sauce. 
Fresh asparagus is better than canned if in season. 
Cook until very tender, strain, and add to white 
sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. 

CREAM OF CELERY 

White Sauce 

}i tablespoon of butter, ^ tablespoon of flour, 
I cup of milk. 

Three sticks of celery, washed, cut in small pieces, 
and cooked in the milk for the white sauce 20 

226 



SOUPS MADE WITH MILK 227 

minutes in a double boiler. Salt and pepper to 
taste. 

CREAM OF CHICKEN 

White sauce 

One tablespoon of butter, i tablespoon of flour, 
}4 cup milk. 

}4 cup strong chicken broth. Remove carefully 
every particle of fat and heat before adding to 
white sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. 

CREAM OF CLAM 

White Sauce 

One tablespoon of butter, I tablespoon of flour, 
yi cup milk. 

J4 cup hot clam broth. Pepper to taste. 

CREAM OF CORN 

White Sauce 

One tablespoon of butter, l tablespoon of flour, 
}{ cup milk. 

}4 cup canned com, chopped, heated 20 minutes 
in )4 cup water, strain, pressing out all the juice 



228 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

possible. Add to white sauce. Salt and pepper 
to taste. 

CREAM OF GREEN PEAS 

White Sauce 

}4 tablespoon of butter, ^2 tablespoon of flour, 
^ cup milk. 

J/2 cup canned or fresh cooked peas, drained and 
heated in }4 cup cold water, rub through a sieve. 
Add to white sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. 

CREAM OF ONION 

White Sauce 

}4 tablespoon of butter, J^ tablespoon of flour, 
I cup milk. 

One onion cut up and scalded in milk for white 
sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. 

CREAM OF POTATO 

White Sauce 

yi. tablespoon of butter, ^ tablespoon of flour, 
J^ cup of milk. 

% cup hot mashed potato, add hot sauce 
slowly. Salt and pepper to taste. At serving 



SOUPS MADE WITH MILK 229 

time add yi teaspoon of tomato catsup or i 
teaspoon of chopped parsley. A small slice of 
onion or a stick of celery may be scalded with the 
milk then strained out. Strain if soup contains 
lumps of potato. Thin with hot milk if desired. 

CREAM OF TOMATO 

White Sauce 

I tablespoon of butter, I tablespoon of flour, 
yi cup of milk. 

y2 cup stewed and strained tomato. Add a 
tiny pinch of baking soda before adding to the 
white sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. A small 
piece of bay leaf, i clove, and a small piece of 
onion may be cooked with the tomato. 



LIGHT DIET 

When your patient is better and the doctor 
says you may give him a light diet, continue the 
gruels, milk, and soups, or any other drink of which 
your patient has not become tired. You may give 
the cream soups with tiny squares of toast or 
crackers, the meat soups with the barley, rice, or 
tapioca left in them, and any well-cooked, soft 
cereal, boiled rice with sugar and cream (the rice 
must be well done), and also toast in many com- 
binations, creamed or with hot milk, with creamed 
oysters, creamed codfish, or any other creamed 
fish which has not been fried, with poached or cod- 
dled eggs and with some creamed vegetables. 
You may give rice, tapioca, cornstarch, or bread 
puddings, fruit and gelatin jellies, ice creams and 
ices. Some doctors allow broiled steak, baked or 
broiled fish, creamed sweet breads, baked potato, 
and fresh fruit. It is best, however, to have a clear 
understanding with the doctor before you make 
any change in the diet. 

230 



LIGHT DIET 231 

CONVALESCENCE DIET 

A person who has been ill, is still a patient until 
he is absolutely well, whatever he may think to the 
contrary. He will think up all kinds of terrible 
combinations of food and many times will eat 
things which he should not have unless you watch 
him carefully. I am not speaking of children. 
Just as long as he must remain in bed or in the 
house and maybe longer, great care must be taken 
with his diet. I knew of a man recovering from 
typhoid who had dismissed his trained nurse the 
day before, and was sitting by the window when 
a kind and generous neighbor arrived bearing a 
basket of pears. One who has had typhoid is 
always hungry. The warnings of the nurse were 
forgotten and the pears eaten. The man had a 
relapse and the nurse was again sent for in a 
hurry. I am not sure but that he died but I am 
not going to say so as this is a chapter on diets 
and not a tragedy. 

Your convalescent patient must not be asked 
to digest any kind of fried food, under-done 
vegetables, fresh bread or biscuit, or food which 
takes a long time to digest, such as pork, boiled 
cabbage (raw cabbage is easier to digest), boiled 



232 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

beets, rich cake or pies, and should have his 
hearty meal in the middle of the day. 

He may have all things included in liquid and 
light diets; also peas, cauliflower, asparagus, 
potatoes (not fried, baked are best), water cress, 
lettuce, chicken, lamb, beef steak, roast beef, 
jelHed chicken, or any dainty which you can concoct 
or which the neighbors bring in unless the doctor 
forbids. You may better err on the safe side. 
But with all this list to choose from your patient 
may demand such combinations as pork and 
cabbage or lobster salad and ice cream. 



A FEW HELPFUL RECIPES 

TOAST 

Cut stale bread in quarter inch slices; remove 
the crusts. Place on a toaster for a few minutes 
then turn and dry on the other side. Keep turning 
the toast until it is an even brown but not burned. 
Butter and serve on a hot plate. It is much easier 
to eat if cut in narrow strips and looks nicely- 
piled log cabin fashion 

CREAM TOAST 

Pour over toast a cream sauce made of butter, 
flour, and milk, add a lump of butter and a dash 
of black pepper or paprica. Garnish with a spray 
of parsley. 

MILK TOAST 

Pour over toast hot milk, to which has been 
added salt, pepper, and butter to taste. This is 
much more appetizing if the milk is carried to the 

233 



234 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

patient's room in a hot pitcher or cup and added 
to the toast just before it is eaten. 

Toast may be used as a vehicle for many things 
and if only a small piece of broiled steak is al- 
lowed, it will seem a much larger meal if served on a 
nicely browned and buttered hot piece of toast. 
A spray of water cress or a slice of lemon will 
help the illusion. It may serve as a background 
for creamed oysters, creamed or buttered aspara- 
gus, creamed chicken, any minced and nicely 
seasoned meat, broiled oysters, thin broiled slices 
of bacon, or served with any of the cream soups, 
and who does not expect his first meal of real things 
to chew, to be egg on toast. 

BRAN BREAD OR BISCUITS 

I pint of bran }4 pint of milk 

y2 pint of flour 6 tablespoons molasses 

I even teaspoon of baking soda 
Mix the bran, flour, and soda together; mix 
the molasses and milk together and add the flour 
mixture. Bake in gem pans or in bread tin. 
Two of these biscuits or two slices of bread eaten 
at each meal will act as a laxative and in most 
cases cure constipation. 



EGGS 

A soft egg should be boiled for 3 minutes. 
Dip the boiled egg in cold water and you will 
be able to handle it and in that way remove the 
egg before it has grown too hard in the hot shell. 
Put in a small glass, an egg cup, or on toast. Add 
salt and a tiny bit of pepper. 

POACHED EGG 

Have water boiling in a sauce pan and break 
into it the egg. Put the pan at once on the back of 
the stove or where it will not boil and let it stand 
until the white has set and a white film formed 
over the yolk. Lift with a skimmer or a mixing 
spoon with holes in it. Serve on hot buttered toast 
on a small warm plate, or with potato. The toast 
may be softened with hot water if desired. Add 
salt and pepper. 

CODDLED EGGS 

Place the egg in a bowl and pour over it i quart 
boiling water, cover at once and let stand from 8 

235 



236 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

to 10 minutes, or while you are making the toast, 
tea, etc. The white of the egg never is hard if 
cooked in this way and is easy to digest. It does 
not look as well as a poached egg when on toast 
but is better for invalids. 

FRENCH OMELET 

Beat 2 eggs until the white and yolk are well 
blended. Add 2 tablespoons milk, salt and pepper 
to taste. Butter a hot omelet or frying-pan with 
I tablespoon butter, turn in omelet. As soon as it 
begins to cook, turn carefully with a limber knife, 
let it brown on the bottom. Fold together and 
turn on a hot plate. 

This must not be left while cooking as it bums 
very easily. 

OTHER OMELETS 

A variety of omelets can be made with the 
French omelet for a foimdation. To the French 
omelet add a tablespoon of cooked asparagus 
tips, or a few well-cooked green beans or peas. 
If your patient is convalescing and is fond of 
onion, mince a slice of onion and fry in the butter 



EGGS 237 

before adding the milk and egg. To this add a 
few tiny pieces of pimento, the green beans, or 
asparagus and serve with a baked potato or hot 
buttered toast. 

SOFT CUSTARD 

Beat yolks of 2 eggs, add 2 tablespoons sugar, 
and a few grains of salt. Heat i cup milk in a 
double boiler and stir in gradually the egg and 
sugar. Cook until it thickens, strain, cool, and 
add a few drops of vanilla. 

BAKED CUSTARD 

Beat slightly i small eggy add I tablespoon 
sugar and a few grains of salt. Add egg and sugar 
to ]/2 cup hot milk, strain into a cup, sprinkle 
with nutmeg, and place in a pan of hot water. 
Bake in slow oven until firm. 

JUNKET CUSTARD 

Heat I cup milk until lukewarm, add I table- 
spoon sugar. As soon as sugar is dissolved add 34 
Junket tablet which has been dissolved in i tea- 



,ir-^ 



238 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

spoon of cold water and >2 tablespoon brandy, or 
X teaspoon vanilla. Pour at once into small 
glasses or molds. Let stand until firm, then put 
in cool place until ready to serve. 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 

Johnnie Jones and his sister Sue, not only eat 
peaches of emerald hue, but they step on rusty 
nails, tumble into the pond, climb apple trees 
and fall out again, breaking their arms, legs, and 
collar bones, cut themselves with knives, broken 
glass, or old tins, get fish hooks in their fingers, 
run slivers in their toes when they go bare-footed, 
and get stung when they inspect the hives to see 
how the bees are working. Busy mother Jones 
must doctor the children, administer reproof for 
past carelessness, caution for days to come, and if 
father Jones has sunstroke, gets into poison ivy, 
or a venomous snake "sees him first," she must 
be able to do the right thing at the right time. 
This is as important a part of home keeping as 
cooking or sewing. An efficient mother feeds the 
body and mind, binds up the wounds, and heals 
the broken hearts. 

Read carefully the chapter on emergencies, 

poisons, and bandaging. You may not remember 

239 



PI 



240 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

the directions but you will know exactly where 
to find them when wanted in a hurry. 

BURNS 

When a burn or scald covers only a small surface 
and is not deep it can be treated at home. If the 
burn is deep, or if not deep, should cover a large sur- 
face of the body, a doctor must be called at once. 
As a rule the surface covered by a burn and not the 
depth of it, is what matters. If more than one 
third of the body is covered by the bum, death 
is probable and will surely follow if two thirds of 
the skin is destroyed. 

If your clothing catches on fire, lie down and 
roll or wrap around you a rug, blanket, or any- 
thing you can catch up, but do not run. If you 
run, the draft formed by your movements will fan 
the flames in the same way that a fire is fanned 
by blowing with a bellows. Keep your mouth 
closed so you will not inhale the smoke and do not 
waste your breath in screams. Work. If another 
person is on fire, wrap her quickly in a couch- 
cover, rug, drapery, or any clothing, preferably 
woolen, which you can reach quickly. Put your 
patient on the floor and roll her up from head to 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 241 

foot. Fire cannot burn if the air is kept from it. 
This you do by covering your patient or yourself. 
Keep the covers on until you are sure the fire 
is extinguished then you can call help. Do not 
shriek, throw your apron over your head and 
scream, "fire! she is dead!" but put out the fire, 
then call someone to help you and send for a 
doctor. Whatever you do, keep cool. Screaming 
causes confusion and panic and the patient, if 
badly burned, has enough to bear without extra 
fireworks on the part of the family or the neigh- 
bors. Keep the patient lying down with her 
head lowered, loosen her clothing, and keep her 
quiet. Cut away the clothing from the burned 
surface. If the clothing sticks to the burn do not 
pull it off but soak with olive oil, when it can be 
easily removed. Take care not to irritate the 
burned surface and if blisters have formed, do not 
break them. Wet soft cotton cloths or old hand- 
kerchiefs in a strong solution of baking soda 
and cool water and cover burns. Coarsely woven 
gauze is used, many times, in dressing bums but the 
threads stick in the wound and are difficult to 
remove. A soft, closely woven cloth is much 
better. 

A small burn may be treated in the same way 
16 



242 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

at first, then use vaseline, carbolized vaseline, 
olive oil, oxide of zinc ointment, or lard. With a 
clean knife spread the vaseline or ointment, 
generously, on a clean, soft linen or cotton cloth 
and apply to the burn, holding in place with a 
bandage, not too tightly put on. 

A patient having a bad burn is liable to suffer 
from shock and should be given treatment for it. 
Vomiting is a good symptom. The patient may 
not be unconscious and still suffer from shock. 
Keep her quiet; permit no extra people in the 
room. All people who are not caring for the 
patient are extra. Raise the foot of the bed so 
that the blood will enter the brain, give fresh air 
and stimulating drinks such as, milk with whiskey 
or wine, cocoa cordial, or eggnog with whiskey. 
Place a hot-water bag at her feet and do not 
discuss the accident, the extent of the patient's 
injuries, or any other subject, in the patient's 
room. Do all you can for the patient and then 
keep her, the family, and yourself quiet until the 
doctor arrives. 

BURNS CAUSED BY ACIDS 

Wash burns quickly with lime water, baking 
soda and water, or soapsuds. Then treat in the 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 243 

same way as burns caused by fire. If acid is in the 
eye, wash the eye quickly with clear water then 
with lime water. 

BURNS CAUSED BY ALKALIES (lIME) 

Wash the burn with vinegar or lemon juice then 
dress in the same way as other bums. Take great 
care in removing clothing. 

[ artificial respiration 

Dr. Sylvester^s method of artificial respiration 
is considered by most authorities to be the best. 

Lay the patient on his back on the ground or 
floor, loosen belts and tight bands. Place, under 
his shoulder blades, a roll of clothing (a coat will 
do), a hard pillow, or anything that will raise him, 
in order that his chest will be higher than the 
rest of his body. Do not let his head hang back. 
Put a small pad under it if it is in an unnatural 
position. Have someone hold his tongue. It will 
not slip from the fingers if held with a dry cloth or 
handkerchief. If you are working alone tie one 
corner of the handkerchief around the tongue and 
fasten the opposite corner to the patient's clothing. 
If the tongue is not kept out of the mouth it may 
fall back in the throat, stopping the air passages. 



244 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

Kneel at the patient's head and taking a wrist 
in each hand, draw the arms out and up, keeping 
them near the ground until you have them well 
above the head. Stretch the arms and hold in this 
position while you slowly count three. This ex- 
pands the chest and air will rush into the lungs. 
Then bring the elbows slowly down and press 
them firmly against the sides of the chest. This 
forces the air out of the lungs. Again slowly 
count three. These movements should be done 
over and over again with regularity, until the 
patient begins to breathe. Do not get discouraged 
and give up in a short time. Work for at least 
an hour. Persons apparently lifeless have been 
revived after hours of artificial respiration. In 
case the patient stops breathing you must begin 
all over again. Do not leave him until you are 
sure he is conscious and breathing regularly. 

IN CASE OF DROWNING 

As soon as the patient is taken from the water, 
clean his mouth of mud and water with a hand- 
kerchief or anything handy. Loosen all tight 
bands, belts, etc. Turn him on his face, stand 
over him, astride, put your arms under his abdo- 
men and raise him up in order that the water may 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 245 

drain out of his throat and lungs. Hold him this 
way while you count fifteen. Turn him on his 
back, pull out his tongue, and proceed to give 
artificial respiration as described above. If there 
are two people to help, one should proceed with 
artificial respiration while the other goes for a 
doctor and brings blankets, if they can be procured, 
hot-water bottle, and stimulants. If the accident 
happens in the woods or far from town or a house, 
the second helper should remove the wet clothing 
and cover the patient with his own clothes. The 
helpers can work very well in their underclothes, 
using their own for the patient. Build a fire near 
enough to warm but not to endanger the patient. 
As quickly as the patient begins to breathe and not 
before, rub his arms and legs, rubbing toward 
his heart. This helps to restore the circulation. 
As the patient begins to breathe for himself he 
may vomit or have a chill, or both. If he vomits, 
turn him on his right side so the vomited matter 
will not strangle him. As quickly as possible after 
he has begun to breathe, put him in bed in warm 
blankets with hot-water bags or bottles. Give 
him hot coffee or other stimulants. If he is 
hungry give him beef tea or hot milk but no 
solid food until ordered by the doctor. Keep 



246 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

him quiet and let him sleep. He will be weak and 
nervous and should stay in bed until fully recovered 
and should see no visitors. 

Remember that the life of the patient depends 
upon your keeping your wits about you. The 
directions for procedure in artificial respiration 
should be learned by heart by everyone living 
near a lake or river or even a little pond. A 
person can drown in very little water. Make 
this one of the things to be taught in your home, for 
no one knows how soon such knowledge will be 
needed, and how thankful you will be if you or your 
family can save a life. If children in school could 
be taught to give artificial respiration it would be a 
fine thing. Not learned in parrot fashion, " now all 
together, tell what to do when one falls in the 
water, '* but let each child demonstrate and tell why 
he does things as he does them. Be sure that he 
understands. This is as necessary in some com- 
munities as the fire drill and would be a good gym- 
nastic exercise as well, for it is no easy task to 
give artificial respiration for any length of time. 

TOOTHACHE 

Clean the cavity in the tooth if it can be reached, 
-with a bit of absorbent cotton on a toothpick. 



WHAT TO DO IN_ EMERGENCIES 247 

Then put a piece of cotton which has been dipped 
in oil of cloves, in the tooth. Camphor will 
sometimes stop the pain. If you cannot reach the 
cavity, place a small piece of absorbent cotton 
which has been dipped in camphor, between the 
cheek and the gum. A hot-water bag is a great 
comforter. At the earliest possible moment take 
the sufferer to the dentist. Teeth always stop 
aching when the dentist is mentioned but it is 
only a bluff on the part of the tooth and should 
not be allowed to deceive any one. That tooth 
is only waiting for a cold, damp night to start in 
again on its vicious career and should be attended 
to at once. 

EARACHE 

This is sometimes caused by decayed teeth and 
treatment of the bad tooth may stop the earache. 
If not, the ear must be treated to stop the pain 
for the time being and a doctor consulted as soon 
as possible as there may be trouble in the ear 
which, if neglected, will lead to greater pain and 
deafness. A hot-water bag or hot woolen cloth 
over the ear will sometimes relieve the pain. If not, 
hold a teaspoon in hot water until the spoon is 
hot, drop three or four drops of sweet oil on the 



248 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

hot spoon (this will warm the oil) then drop into the 
ear and plug with a warm piece of absorbent 
cotton. If you have opium or laudanum in the 
house, drop two drops of one of these and three 
drops of sweet oil on the hot spoon and drop in the 
ear. The hot-water bag should have only a little 
water in it so it will lie flat over the ear and not 
be heavy. Earache is a very hard pain to bear 
and should have immediate attention. 

STIES 

If a person has a sty on his eye he should see a 
doctor, as it may mean a rundown condition or 
defective eyes. Hot or cold applications relieve 
the pain. Hot applications should not be con- 
tinued on the eye for more than five minutes at 
a time. There have been cases where the eye 
was permanently injured by poulticing. If a 
cold compress is comforting to the patient it is 
much wiser to use it. If the sty needs to be 
lanced it had best be done by a doctor. If you 
must have it opened at home be sure the needle 
or instrument used is made surgically clean by 
boiling and that the pus does not get in the 
eye. 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 249 

HEAT RASH pR PRICKLY HEAT 

This is a common affliction of small children 
during hot weather. Bathe frequently and pow- 
der with talcum powder or cornstarch. If this 
does not correct the condition, bathe in soda 
bath (see chapter on baths) or lime water. Re- 
duce the amount of clothing and keep the patient 
as quiet as possible. 

CHILL 

A chill may be due to cold, exposure, nervous- 
ness, or may be caused by absorption of poisons. 
Put the patient in a warm bed with warm flannel 
blankets around him, hot-water bags at feet, 
between thighs, and over heart. Rub limbs and 
body briskly to bring the blood to the surface. 
Give hot drinks, such as, tea, coffee, hot lemonade 
or hot water and whiskey. If the chill is caused 
by cold, exposure, or nervousness the patient will 
probably recover in a short time but if the patient 
has a wound or if the chill is after childbirth, the 
doctor should be notified at once as the patient is 
probably absorbing poisons and needs immediate 
attention. 



250 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

SNAKE BITE 

' Not many poisonous snakes are met now-a-days 
but a snake bite should have instant attention. 
The bite is usually on the foot or leg. Tie your 
handkerchief, belt, suspender, or strip from the 
bottom of a skirt tightly around the leg between 
the bite and the body. This will prevent the 
poisoned blood from reaching the body. Squeeze 
the wound and if water is at hand wash it. You 
must work quickly. Put your mouth over the 
bite and suck as hard as you can, expectorate and 
suck again. You will be able to remove much of 
the poison in this way with no danger to yourself 
unless you have a sore in your mouth. Do this 
the instant the bite occurs, then put strong 
ammonia on the bite, and send for the doctor. 
Do not leave the bandage longer than one half 
hour without loosening it. If the doctor has not 
arrived by that time loosen the bandage a little 
so that the blood may flow a tiny bit, then 
tighten it again. If the bandage is kept tight, 
there can be no circulation of the blood and 
mortification will be caused thereby. If the 
bandage is loosened and a little blood is allowed to 
flow toward the body, the effect will not be as 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 251 

bad as if all the poison were allowed to go there 
at once. The patient may be strong enough to 
absorb the poison without disastrous results if it 
is taken into the system slowly. Some authori- 
ties advise stimulating with whiskey or brandy 
and others, equally wise, say that it is not neces- 
sary. In this case one must use his own judgment. 
After the patient is out of danger exterminate the 
snakes. 

MOSQUITO BITES 

Put, at once, a drop of ammonia on the mosquito 
bite and do not scratch it. Dust with talcum 
powder. 

INSECTS AND SPIDERS 

Apply ammonia to the sting or bite. If the 
sting is still in the flesh remove it with dressing 
forceps. Apply wet salt and wet cloths or if 
away from the house, apply wet earth. 

POISON IVY 

Over the rash-covered skin lay cloths wet in a 
strong solution of baking soda and water. Dress 
later with oxide of zinc ointment. 



252 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING ^ 

POISON PLANTS, MUSHROOMS, ETC. 

See chapter on poisons. Use remedy for pto- 
maine poisoning. 

SUNBURN 

One may suffer much from sunburn. Bathe in 
solution of baking soda and water, then apply 
vaseline, olive oil, ointment, or cold cream. 

FAINTING 

Fainting may be caused by foul air, exhaustion, 
hunger, pain, or fright. Lay the patient down, give 
all the fresh air possible, loosen clothing, and dash 
cold water on face and chest. Smelling salts or 
ammonia should be used but care must be taken 
not to get them in the patient's eyes or too 
near the mouth or nose. The head must be lower 
than the rest of the body so the blood will flow 
to the brain. Rub to help circulation and keep 
the patient quiet until fully recovered. 

SUNSTROKE 

Send for the doctor and apply ice to the head. 
If you have no ice use cloths wet in cold water. 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 253 

Give a cold bath in tub if possible, if not give cool- 
ing bath described in chapter on baths. If there is 
little help the cooling bath on the bed will be best, 
as it is very hard to manage a helpless person in a 
tub. The pulse and temperature must be watched 
carefully. If the temperature drops quickly the 
patient must, at once, be put in blankets and heat 
applied to the feet. The temperature must be 
taken every five minutes. If the temperature 
rises, renew the ice on the head and the cooling 
bath. When the patient is conscious give cold 
water to drink but no stimulants. The pulse 
must be taken often as there is danger of heart 
failure. 

CHOKING 

When a person is choking on something which 
has been swallowed (fish bone or food), give at once 
the white of an egg without beating. If the 
patient has swallowed a sharp substance, have 
him eat generously of bread, potato, or mush. 
If a child chokes hold him up by his heels and 
shake him. An older person can be laid on a 
chair with head hanging down. Strike sharply 
on the back between the shoulders. 



254 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING ^ 

DUST OR CINDERS IN THE EYE 

Wash the eye with clear water, using a dropper 
or an eye cup. If you have neither of these, drop 
water from a spoon. The head should be held 
on one side with the eye open and care taken not to 
touch the eyeball with the spoon. A tiny piece 
of cotton on a toothpick will sometimes remove 
obstinate particles of dirt. If the eye is painfully 
inflamed or you are not able to remove the irrita- 
tion, consult an oculist (eye doctor) at once. 

BITES OF DOGS, CATS, RATS, ETC. 

Wash, at once, if possible in clean water, suck 
the wound, and apply ammonia as in snake bite. 
These bites must not be neglected as they some- 
times cause grave trouble. 

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE NOSE 

When the baby puts in her nose, a peanut, 
bean, bead, or any of the things which babies are 
so fond of storing in their noses, have her take a 
long breath and have her blow her nose while you 
hold tightly closed, the nostril which has not 
been used as a storehouse. This may dislodge 
the object. Try this several times before giving 
up. If you are not able to dislodge it, take baby 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 255 

to the doctor as it must not stay in the nose. 
Inexperienced people should consult a doctor about 
any foreign object in nose, throat, eye, or ear. Do 
not poke in your ears or your children's either with 
toothpicks or hair-pins. Let their ears alone, ex- 
cept to wash them carefully, unless there is trouble 
or pain. In that case take them to a doctor. 

NOSE BLEED 

Keep the patient quiet with the head high. 
Apply ice or cold cloths to the back of the neck 
and firmly pinch the nose closing the nostrils. 
If this does not stop the flow of blood, pack the 
nostrils with absorbent cotton wet in vinegar and 
cold water, or in alum water and put feet and hands 
in hot water. The patient should not lie down 
unless very weak. Let him sit up with head 
thrown back. 

FISHHOOK ACCIDENTS 

When a fishhook is caught in the flesh beyond 
the upper end of the barb, it should never be pulled 
out the way it went in but should be pushed 
through the flesh until the barb is clear, then clip 
the hook in half with heavy nippers. This wound 
should never be covered with new skin or plaster 



256 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

but should be washed carefully, soaked, and 
squeezed in clean water (boiled water if possible), 
and then bound up in a sterilized dressing. If 
soreness or inflammation follow, see a doctor at 
once, as a fishhook wound may easily be the be- 
ginning of blood poisoning. 

CUTS 

Dipping a cut in very hot water will stop the 
bleeding. Look carefully to see that it contains 
no dirt or other substance and bind up in a steri- 
lized dressing. If it is a small cut on the finger 
it will heal of itself if kept covered and clean. A 
large cut may need stitches and should be exam- 
ined by a doctor. 

PUNCTURED WOUNDS CAUSED BY OLD NAILS, 

SPLINTERS OF OLD WOOD, GARDEN TOOLS, 

AND TOY PISTOLS 

A wound of this kind is not dangerous because 
of the instrument which caused it, but because 
of the germs which may have been on the instru- 
ment. Children playing out of doors or around 
bams are likely to step on rusty nails or run 
slivers of old wood in their hands or feet. Nails 
or slivers or even garden tools may carry tetanus 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 257 

(lockjaw) germs. These germs are very much at 
home around horse barns or in manured fields 
or gardens. Toy pistols are another cause of 
many cases of lockjaw. The reason for this is 
that the child's hands are dirty and the dirt is 
carried into the wound. The caps are made of 
paper which is capable of carrying the tetanus 
germs. The symptoms, as a rule, will not be 
noticed until about a week after the injury. The 
wound should be thoroughly cleansed with clean 
warm water and not covered with plaster or new 
skin. Put on a clean dressing and take the child 
to the doctor at once. He will probably give 
antitoxin which may prevent further trouble. 

CONVULSIONS 

Convulsions in children are usually caused by 

indigestion. The child should be put in a hot 

bath. If you have no bathroom or large tin 

bath pan use a wash tub. Put cold cloths on the 

patient *s head while he is in the bath. Give a 

soap and water enema and send for the doctor as 

the case may be serious. If you have no bath 

thermometer try the water in the old-fashioned 

way by holding your elbow in it or by trying it with 

your tongue, then you will not burn your patient. 
17 



258 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING ^ 

HEAT EXHAUSTION 

As a rule a patient suffering from heat exhaustion 
will not be unconscious. The skin will be cold and 
damp and the breathing shallow and fast. The pa- 
tient will have a weak pulse and should be put in 
bed with warm blankets and hot -water bottles and 
should be given hot coffee or hot water and whiskey. 

FROSTBITE 

Do not let the person suffering from frostbitten 
fingers, toes, ears, or feet go near the fire. Do not 
apply heat to the frostbite but rub, very gently, 
the afflicted place with cold water or snow. A 
foot or hand may be held in a basin of cold water 
and gently rubbed. Rub with a towel or your 
hand until the circulation is reestablished. Should 
heat be applied to a frostbite, mortification of the 
part might be the result. 

SPRAINS 

When your patient has (as he thinks) sprained 
his ankle, leg, or arm, elevate the afficted part and 
support as comfortably as possible on pillows. Very 
cold or very hot cloths should be applied and the doc- 
tor called as there may be more serious complica- 
tions than are apparent to either you or the patient. 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 259 

BROKEN BONES 

When lifting a patient who has a broken bone, 
be careful to support the limb both above and 
below the injury. Do not twist it or try to move 
it at all as this will cause intense pain and do more 
harm than good. Make your patient as comfort- 
able as possible and call a doctor. If the patient 
must be moved, put a board, the ironing board or 
long sticks, under the limb, moving it as little as 
possible and tying both sides of the break. The 
patient may better wait some time for the doctor 
than permit someone who does not know how, to 
try to remedy the hurt. Moving a broken bone 
tears the muscle around the ragged ends of the 
bone and adds to the injury. Keep the patient 
quiet and apply cold wet cloths to the injured 
place. This will control the swelling, making the 
bone easier to *'set." 

WOUNDS AND HEMORRHAGE 

The Red Cross Textbook (General Edition) 
costs but thirty-five cents and contains many 
illustrated methods of controlling hemorrhages. 

This book should be in every house. 

The blood from a wounded artery is bright 



26o THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING ^ 

red and flows in spurts. Pressure must be applied 
ABOVE the wound, or between the wound and the 
heart. If the wound is on the arm or leg, lay a 
small hard object (a pocket-knife or a small flat 
stone) over the artery above the wound and tie 
tightly in place with a handkerchief, a strip torn 
from a skirt, or any other bandage. Keep the limb 
raised. If the bleeding is on the body, try pressing 
around the wound with your finger until you locate 
the artery. If this is in a place where you can 
apply a hard compress, do so. Apply very cold, 
clean, wet cloths or cracked ice in a clean cloth. 
Remove tight clothing and get a doctor as quickly 
as possible. Do not give stimulating drinks until 
ordered by the doctor unless you have been able 
to stop the bleeding, or the patient is very weak. 
Keep the patient quiet and give fresh air. 

Blood from a wounded vein is a dark purpHsh 
color and flows steadily. Raise the limb. If the 
bleeding does not stop make gentle pressure 
BELOW the wound. Wash the wound by pouring 
over it sterilized water (see sterilized water, 
chapter on medicine closet). Cover with a clean 
dressing and bandage tightly. If the wound is 
serious and yet not bleeding freely, do not try to 
dress it but send for the doctor and make your 



WHAT TO DO IN EMERGENCIES 261 

patient as comfortable as possible. If you dress 
the wound you may infect it and no harm will be 
done by waiting until the doctor arrives. 

When an accident occurs you will have no time 
to look in the book to see if it is an artery or a 
vein that is bleeding and where you must put the 
bandage. Remember it in this way. A stands 
for ARTERY, A also stands for above. A wounded 
ARTERY is tied ABOVE the wound. So, of course, a 
wounded vein is tied below. 

BANDAGING 

The Red Cross Emergency or First Aid outfit 
comes in different-sized packages. In these are 
bandages and illustrated directions for applying 
them. There is a cardboard box, costing $1.50, 
which should be in every home medicine closet, and 
a tin box, costing $3.00 which should be in every 
automobile. These useful aids are now generally 
kept in places where people are likely to be hurt 
while working. These boxes contain, beside the 
antiseptic surgical supplies, a small booklet which 
gives explicit directions and illustrations for using 
the different bandages and supplies. 

An artistic bandager gains the art by long 
practice in clinic or hospital, and uses many 



262 THE BOOK OF HOME NURSING 

kinds of bandages. For bandages which will be 
put on at home, two kinds will answer. Any one 
can wind a long narrow bandage around and around 
an arm or leg to hold a dressing in place. That 
is the simplest bandage. Another simple but very- 
useful bandage is the four-tailed one. This is 
made from a piece of cloth about eight inches 
wide and about a yard long, or long enough to go 
over the head and tie. If it is used for a knee 
bandage it should be about one quarter of a yard 
wide and one and one quarter of a yard long. For 
an elbow, one a little shorter will do. The size 
of the patient will govern the size of the bandage. 
To make the bandage cut the cloth in the middle 
from each end to from six or eight inches of the 
center. 

As a simple diagram explains better than a great 
deal of description, you can see exactly how to 
apply your bandage by looking at the drawings on 
the next three pages. 



Fig. I. — Four tailed bandage. 




Fig. 2. — Four tailed 
bandage on top of head. 




Fig. 3. — Four tailed 
bandage on back of head. 




Fig. 4.— Four tailed 
bandage on front of head. 




' Fig. 5.~-Four tailed 

bandage on chin with extra 

piece to hold it in place. 



363 




Fig. 6.— Four tailed bandage on knee. 




Fig. 7.— Four tailed bandage on breast. 
264 




Fig, 8. — Four tailed bandage on elbow. 




Fig. 9. — The way to roll a long narrow bandage. 




Fig. 10. — Long narrow bandage on arm. 
265 



INDEX 



Acids, burns by, 242. 
Adenoids, no. 
Albuminized, milk, 219. 

— water, 213. 
Alcohol, bath, 54. 

— poisoning, 168. 
Alkalies, bums by, 243. 
Ammonia poisoning, 168. 
Apple water, 209. 
Asparagus, cream of, 226. 
Arsenic poisoning, 169. 
Artificial respiration, 243. 

B 

Baby, care of, 157. 
Backache, 121. 
Bandages, 88, 89, 261. 
Barley, gruel, 224. 

— water, 209. 
Baths, 44-48, 189-191. 
Bed, to choose, 32-35, 188. 

— to make, 35-39- 

— high, 33. 
Bedbugs, 179. 

Bedpan, 13, 83-84, 125, 128, 

172. 
Bedsores, 13-14, 19. 
Bed-table, to make, 173. 
Beef, broth, 220. 

— extract, 221. 

— tea, 221. 

— juice, 222. 

Bichloride of mercury poison- 
ing, 170. 



Bites of dogs, cats, rats, 

254. 
Blankets, 39. 
Book-rest, to make, 174. 
Boracic acid, 86. 
Bow-legs, 114. 
Bran bread, 238. 
Broken bones, 259. 

— to protect, 176-177. 
Broth, chicken, clam, beef, 

lamb, mutton, 220, 

— oyster, 221. 
Burns, 87. 

— by fire, 240-242. 

— by acids, 242. 

— by alkalies (lime), 243. 



Calomel poisoning, 170. 
Carbolic acid poisoning, 169. 
Castor oil, to give, 85-86, 
Cathartic, 67. 
Celery, cream of, 226. 
Chart, to keep, 68-70. 
Chicken, broth 220. 

— cream of, 227. 
Chicken-pox, 142. 
Children, care of, 106-119. 

— clothing, III. 

— diet, 202-205. 

— to amuse, 11 5-1 18. 
Chill, 249. 

Choking, 253. 
Cinders in eye, 254. 
Clam, broth, 220. 

— cream of, 227. 



267 



268 



INDEX 



Cleaning sick-room, 26. 
Cocoa, 217. 

— cordial, 210. 
Coddled egg, 235. 
Coffee, 211, 217. 
Cold, to avoid, 120. 

— care of, 121. 
Cold applications, 104. 
Comfortable in bed, to make, 

15, 19. 
Compress, cold, 104. 
Constipation, 76, 113, 122, 

193, 195. 
Contagious diseases, 123-145. 

— of children, 112. 
Convalescence, of children, 

I15-118. 

— diet in, 231. 
Conviilsions, 257. 
Com, cream of, 227. 
Corrosive sublimate poisoning, 

170. 
Cotton, absorbent, 87-88. 
Cracker gruel, 223. 
Cream soups, 226-229. 

— white sauce for, 224. 

— asparagus, 226. 

— celery, 226. 

— chicken, 227. 

— clam, 227. 

— com, 227. 

— onion, 228. 

— pea, 228. 

— potato, 228. 

— tomato, 229. 
Cream toast, 233. 
Croup, 143-145- 
Currant water, 216. 
Custard, baked, 237. 

— soft, 237. 

— junket, 22iT, 
Cuts, 256. 



Diapers, 157. 
Diet, 56, 206-213. 

— for children, 200. 

— liquid, 214-222. 



Diet in typhoid, 129. 

— convalescent, 231. 
Diphtheria, 137. 

Dog bite, 254. 
Douche, 96. 

Douche bag, care of, 91 
Dressings, to destroy, 28. 
Drowning, 244. 

E 

Ear, foreign bodies in, 254. 

— ache, 247. 
Eggs, 235-238. 

— coddled, 235. 

— custard, 237. 

— lemonade, 218. 

— nog, 219. ^ 

— omelet, 236. 

— poached, 235. 
Emergencies, 239-262. 
Enema, 92-97. 

— for children, 113. 

— glycerine, 95. 

— soapsuds, 95. 

— turpentine, 96. 
Eye, compresses for, 105. 

— cinders, 254. 



Fainting, 252. 

Fallen arch, 165. 

Feeding patient, 22, 56-59, 

176, 208. See diet. 
Feet, 159-164. 

— fallen arch, 165-166. 
Fishbone, 253. 
Fishhook, 255. 
Flaxseed lemonade, 210. 

— poultice, 99. 
Flour gruel, 223. 
Flowers, 30. 
Flies, 29, 195. 
Fomentations, 102. 
Frostbites, 258. 
Furniture, care of, 2^^ 124. 



INDEX 



269 



Gas poisoning, 167. 
German measles, 143. 
Glycerine enema, 95. 
Grape jelly water, 216. 

— juice, 216. 
Gruel, barley, 224. 

— cracker, 223. 

— flour, 223. 

— Indian meal, 223. 

— oatmeal, 223. 
Gum arabic water, 212. 

H 

Hair, 16, 50, 182. 

Headache powder poisoning, 

171. 
Heat exhaustion, 258. 

— care of patient in, 18. 

— rash, 249. 
Hemorrhage, 127, 259. 
Homemade articles, 172-177. 
Hot-water bag, 84, 90, 176. 
Hypodermic, 68. 



Ice bath, 54. 
Ice-cap, 105, 175. 
Indian meal gruel, 223. 
Iodine poisoning, 169. 
Itching skin, 51-53. 
Ivy, poison, 251. 



Jellies, meat, 222. 
Junket, 237. 



K 



Knee-rest, 176. 
Koumiss, 219. 



Laxative, 67. 



Lead poisoning, 169. 
Lemonade, hot, 213. 

— egg, 218. 

— glycerine, 213. 

— with syrup, 215. 
Light diet, 230. 
Lime, burns by 243. 

^ — poisoning, 170. 
Lime water, 212. 
Liniment, 104. 
Lockjaw, 256. 
Lumbago, 122. 
Lye poisoning, 170. 

M 

Measles, 138-140, 

Medicine, to give, 59, 65-68, 

79, 85-86, 
, , — closet, 74-78, 80-82, 91. 

— patent, 80-83. 
Menstruation, 149. 
Milk, albuminized, 219. 

— koumiss, 219. 

— sterilized, 218. 

— soups, 226-229. 

— toast, 233. 
Mice, 178, 

Morphine poisoning, 170. 
Mosquito, 180. 

— bite, 251, 

Mother, care of, 149-156, 183- 

201, 
Mouth, in fevers, 12. 
Move patient up in bed, 20. 
Mumps, 140. 

Mushroom poisoning, 168. 
Mustard foot-bath, 50-52. 
Mutton broth, 220. 



N 



Nose, foreign body in, 254. 

— bleed, 255. 
Night, dress, 42. 

— preparing patient for, 

61-64. 
Nuisances, 178-182. 



270 



INDEX 



Oatmeal gruel, 223. 

— water, 209. 
Ointment, 104. 

— lard and turpentine, 121. 
Olive oil, 87. 

Omelet, 236. 

Onion, cream of, 22^, 

Opium poisoning, 170. 

Orange, to serve, 58. 

Orangeade, 216. 

Oxalic acid poisoning, 171. 

Oyster broth, 221. 



Pad, to make, 42. 
Paris green, poisoning, 169. 
Pea, cream of, 228. 
Phenacetine poisoning, 171. 
Pillows, 15, 19, 21, 38, 40. 
Pin, see choking, 253. 
Pneumonia, 131. 
Poached egg, 235. 
Poisons, to keep, 78. 
Poisoning, 167. 

— Alcohol, 168. 

— Ammonia, 168. 

— Arsenic, 169. 

— Bichloride of mercury, 

170. 

— Calomel, 170. 

— Carbolic acid, 169. 

— Corrosive sublimate, 

170. 

— Gas, 167. 

— Iodine, 169. 

— Ivy, 251. 

— Lead, 169. 

— Lime, 170. 

— Lye, 170. 

— Morphine, 170. 

— Opium, 170. 

— Oxalic acid, 171. 

— Paris green, 169. 

— Phenacetine, 171. 

— Potash, 170. 

— Ptomaine, 168. 



Poisoning, Rat, 169. 

— Strychnine, 170. 

— Toadstool, 168, 
Potash poisoning, 170. 
Potato, cream of, 228. 
Poultice, bread, 98. 

— bran, loi. 

— flaxseed, 99. 

— mustard, 100. 
Powders, to give, 67. 
Prickly-heat, 249. 
Ptomaine poisoning, 168. 
Purgative, 67. 

Q 

Quarantine, 123-145. 

R 

Rats, poison, 169, 179. 

Recipes, 209-238. 

Record for the doctor, 65- 

Respiration, artificial, 243. 
Rice water, 209. 
Roaches, 179. 
Rubber, sheet, substitute, 

173. 

— tubes, care of, 91. 



Salt bath, 50. 

— poultice, loi. 

— salts, 6^. 
Scarlet fever, 133-136. 
Sheets, to change, 41, 48. 

— to remove, 36-40. ^ 

— in contagious diseases, 

125. 
Sick-room, 25-31. ^ 
Sit up, helping patient to, 22. 
Sleep, 61-64, 186-188. 
Snake-bite, 250. 
Soapsuds, enema, 95. 
Soda bath, 51-53. 
Spider-bite, 251. 
Spinal bath, 52-53. 



INDEX 



271 



sprains, 258. 
Sterilize, water, 90. 

— milk, 218. 
Strychnine poisoning, 170. 
Sties, 248. 
Stupes, 102. 
Sunburn, 252. 
Sunstroke, 252. 
Suppository, 68. 
Symptoms, 70-72, 106-110. 



Tea, 211, 217. 
Teeth, 11, 191. 
Temperature, to take, 109. 

— bath to reduce, 54. 
Toadstool poisoning, 168. 
Toast, 60. 

— cream, 233. 

— milk, 233. 

— water, 210. 
Tomato, cream soup, 229. 
Toothache, 246. 

Tray, 56-60. 



Turn patient on side, 20. 
Turpentine enema, 96. 
Typhoid fever, 125-130. 

U 

Underclothing, 184. 
Urine, 72. 



Visitors, 6. 
Vomit, 70. 



W 



Water supply, 195. 

— sterilize, 90. 
White sauce for cream soups, 

224. 
Whooping cough, 141. 
Windows, 27, 62, 183. 
Wounds, by old nails, etc, 

256, 259. 



